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| Kerobokan prison, Bali, Indonesia |
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the latest high profile figure to be approached for help by a Redcar gran on death row in Bali.
Lindsay Sandiford, who lived in
Redcar, is in a Bali prison waiting death by firing squad for drug smuggling.
Supporters on a website campaigning to raise funds for the legal battle to fight her sentence have already written to comedian turned social activist
Russell Brand and billionaire businessman
Sir Richard Branson after both spoke out against the execution of her fellow prisoners, known as the Bali Nine.
Now a letter to Ms Sandiford, reportedly from the office of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, has appeared on the campaign’s Facebook page.
The letter, signed by Kay Brock, the chief of staff to the Archbishop, said that at the Archbishop’s request she had been in touch with the Embassy in Jakarta, through the Consulate in Bali, to ask for their help and support.
The letter continues: “The Archbishop has made and continues to make his opposition to the death penalty known on every appropriate occasion, but unfortunately the number of cases makes it impossible to take on individual ones.”
Ms Sandiford, 58, is now the last prisoner on death row on the island’s Kerobokan jail after the other inmates were executed last month.
Sandiford, who lived in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was sentenced to death in January 2013 after being arrested eight months before when she was found with cocaine worth £1.6m.
After Ms Sandiford wrote to Sir Richard Branson earlier this month, he released a statement which said: “I strongly believe that the death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment, and every execution is one execution too many.
“We are following Lindsay Sandiford’s and other cases closely and fully support efforts that are currently underway to aid her appeal.”
Source: Gazette Live, Mike Brow, May 31, 2015
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