Indonesia: Lindsay Sandiford death sentence cruel

Responding to news that a 56-year-old British woman has been sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking offences, Amnesty International said the sentence was cruel.

Lindsay Sandiford was arrested in May 2012 following a routine customs check by Bali police who found 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase.

Prosecutors in the case had recommended a 15-year sentence of imprisonment, but the judges in the case said there were no mitigating circumstances they could consider and handed down the death penalty. Her lawyers are considering an appeal.

Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock said:

“It is extremely sad to hear that judges have decided to give Lindsay Sandiford a death sentence – despite the fact that the prosecution weren’t even asking for it. She is the second British citizen sentenced to death for drug offences in the last six months – an extremely worrying trend.

“The death penalty is the ultimate inhuman punishment, and Amnesty never condones its use, but handing out a penalty of death by firing squad for a non-lethal crime, is cruel in the extreme.

“Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases and urges the Indonesian government to scrap this punishment from its books and impose an official moratorium on all executions so that no other individuals face the death penalty there.”

Lindsay Sandiford is the second British national to be sentenced to death for drug offences in Indonesia in the last six months. A British man, Gareth Cashmore, was sentenced to death by firing squad for drugs offences in October.

Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception and international standards already stipulate that death sentences may never be handed down in non-lethal cases like this one. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has stated that “the death penalty should be eliminated for crimes such as economic crimes and drug-related offences”.

More people are sentenced to death for drug offences than for any other crime in Asia-Pacific countries, with 16 countries in total sentencing people to death for drug trafficking and possession.

There have been no executions in Indonesia since 2008. However, more than a 100 people remain under sentence of death.