The UK Government today faced fresh calls to strike a deal that would free a British gran facing the death squad in Bali.
Human rights barrister Felicity Gerry KC demanded the release of Lindsay Sandiford from her hell-hole Indonesian jail after securing the freedom of a Filipino maid who faced the same fate. Mary Jane Veloso, 40, was due to be executed after she was found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin at Indonesia’s Yogyakarta airport 2010.
But this week she tasted freedom for the first time in nearly 15 years when she landed at Manila airport after negotiations commuted her death penalty. Her story has echoes of Sandiford’s case, who was given the death penalty in 2012 for trafficking £1.6m cocaine into Bali.
Sandiford, 68, claimed she had been forced to carry the haul after gangsters threatened her family. She co-operated to prosecute the others who were responsible. Now Dr Gerry – who visited Sandiford in jail in 2015 – has called on the UK government to act and pave the way for Sandiford’s return.
She told the Mirror: “There is an apparent move by the Indonesian authorities to abolish the death penalty. “So they’re moving, in 2025, to implement a law that will commute death penalties into prison sentences.
“That law has not yet been enforced but in the lead up I think they are negotiating with more than one country about the return of people from overseas.” She added: “Lindsay is someone who was compelled to commit a crime and she assisted the authorities so she helped identify those who were criminally responsible.
“So it seems to me she is the next person to be allowed to go home, this time to Britain.” Legal secretary Sandiford was sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle 4.7kg of cocaine into the country.
She was caught at Bali’s Denpasar Airport in May 2012 when officials discovered a massive haul of cocaine hidden in the lining of her suitcase. The gran, from Redcar, Teesside, was convicted later the same year and has spent 12 years on death row.
Sandiford claims she was forced to transport the drugs to protect her children, whose safety was at stake. Earlier this year the Mirror visited the rat-infested Kerobokan prison where Sandiford spends her time teaching her cellmates knitting.
We revealed British consulate officials had stepped up visits to see her after an Indonesian criminal code was passed by the Government. Among a raft of changes is new legislation that would mean her death sentence could be converted into a life prison term as she has managed more than 10 years’ good behaviour.
Lawyers could then argue she should be returned to the UK, where she is likely to go free on the basis of time served in Indonesia. Today Dr Gerry demanded the British Foreign Office step in and secure her release.
She said: “I think Indonesia is coming out of this well, recognising the modern world and moving forward. “The real question is what are the Foreign Office doing now in Britain? What are they doing?
“She’s a British citizen who has served far more than she would serve in England and Wales whose position as a coerced defender has not been properly investigated as far as we can tell. We also know from previous reports she has suffered significant ill health which would be treated if she continued her imprisonment in England.”
Dr Gerry acted for Veloso and in 2015 secured a last-minute reprieve from execution, allowing her to testify against a criminal syndicate that had allegedly deceived her into acting as a drug courier. On Wednesday this week Veloso was reunited with her family after narrowly escaping the firing squad.
She was convicted in 2010 of carrying 2.6kg heroin hidden in a suitcase but claimed she was duped by a recruiter who promised her a job abroad. The single mother’s conviction and death sentence sparked outrage in the Philippines, prompting advocacy and diplomatic efforts to save her from execution.
As she landed back in her home country this week, Veloso said: “I am grateful to God who has answered my prayers. I will return to my country and I believe that God has a beautiful plan for my life. Thank you, Indonesia, I love Indonesia.”
Veloso’s release came as the Indonesian authorities also allowed the five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring to return home to Australia, after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.
Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czugaj arrived in Darwin on Sunday following years of lobbying by Australia on their behalf.”They look forward, in time, to reintegrating back into and contributing to society,” said a statement issued on behalf of the men and their families.
The high-profile case began in 2005 when Indonesia caught nine young Australians trying to smuggle 8.3kg (18lb) of heroin out of Bali strapped to their bodies. The eight men and one woman were arrested at an airport and hotel in Bali after a tip-off from Australian police.
The case made global headlines when two of the gang’s ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad in 2015. It sparked a diplomatic row between neighbours Indonesia and Australia.
Other members of the Bali Nine – most of whom were aged under 21 – were handed sentences of either 20 years or life in prison. The case put a spotlight on Indonesia’s strict drug laws, some of the most stringent in the world.
One of the nine, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died of cancer in prison in 2018. Shortly afterwards, Renae Lawrence, then 41, the only woman among the group, had her sentence commuted after spending almost 13 years in prison and returned to Australia the same year.
Indonesia did not commute the sentences of the remaining five, now aged 38 to 48, and they were transported back to Australia as prisoners. However it has been reported that the men are effectively free to live unhindered in Australian society.