The Bali drug smuggling trial has resulted in the death sentence being awarded to a British female, who has been declared guilty by an Indonesian court of smuggling cocaine in her luggage.

Lindsay Sandiford was detained in May 2012 at Bali airport when customs officers detected 3.8 kg of cocaine worth £1.6m in her luggage. In her defence, during the Bali drug trial, the British woman had remarked that she had been compelled to traffic the drugs into Bali from Thailand by a criminal squad of drug peddlers.

Indonesian prosecutors had asserted in December 2012 that they would be advising a 15-year prison term for the 56-year-old grandmother, who hails from Teesside. The reason behind the relative prosecutorial leniency was that Lindsay Sandiford had consented to participate in an Indonesian sting operation subsequent to being arrested. In the resulting sting operation, the Indonesian police personnel seized four other drug trafficking suspects. Lindsay Sandiford was found culpable of infringing the severe Indonesian anti-drug trafficking law.

The verdict of the Bali drug trial, which was delivered by the judge, Amser Simanjuntak, remarked that Lindsay Sandiford had jeopardised the image of Bali as a tourism destination. The Bali drug trial ruling also voiced that Lindsay Sandiford had imperilled the Indonesian governmental programme to annihilate drug use in Bali.

Judge Amser Simanjuntak asserted that the Bali court deemed that Lindsay Sandiford was legally guilty of importing narcotics. In her witness declaration during the Bali drug trial, Lindsay Sandiford expressed her apology to the Indonesian Republic and the national population for her participation in the importation of narcotics. The grandmother remarked that she wouldn’t have participated in this drug trafficking case but had to become involved as the lives of her children were at risk and they had to be safeguarded.

Reprieve, a charity outfit seeking implementation of human rights for prisoners, has remarked that Lindsay Sandiford was targeted by drug traffickers, who capitalised on her vulnerability and threatened her children. Following her detention, Lindsay was questioned by the police bereft of a translator, lawyerly assistance or British ambassadorial help for 10 days.