Inside Bali prison where British grandmother has spent 12 years on death row as she hugs grandchildren for first time
Lindsay Sandiford has been held behind bars in Bali, Indonesia, for 12 years.
The British grandmother was thrown into Kerobokan Prison in 2013 after being found with 10.16lb of cocaine smuggled in her suitcase, worth £1.6 million.
Sandiford, 68, was a legal secretary before being sentenced to death by a firing squad following the discovery of the drugs in the lining of her suitcase when travelling through Ngurah Rai International Airport.
She claimed to police that she was forced to smuggle the drugs in by a criminal gang that threatened her family, assisting them in prosecuting others in the drug ring.
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But after 12 years in the unforgiving conditions of the Indonesian prison, the grandmother, who hugged her grandchildren for the first time in over a decade this year, previously claimed death 'won't be a hard thing for me to face anymore' after appeals for freedom were rejected.
She has earned the nickname 'grandmother' during her time in the slammer, even teaching some of them how to knit.
Sandiford shared 'cuddles and kisses' with her grandchildren this year too, report the Mirror, as a prison source claimed: "She was happy and all went well.
"Normally, these visits are held away from the normal meeting area but still have walls and iron bars with one door.
"There's always one or more guards who are stationed within earshot. But she was allowed to hold her family and have cuddles and kisses."
This seems to have reignited her hope of freedom, having previously seen her granddaughter once in her life, in 2015.
Her execution was set that same year, though it has since been moved back, with many believing Sandiford could now escape the death penalty following changes to Indonesian law, which could mean that her death sentence would be changed to a life imprisonment.
But just how brutal is the prison she's spent over a decade in?
Kerobokan is one of the country's most notorious prisons, and though it was built to hold 357 inmates back in 1979, it now houses over 1,000 convicts, with Sandiford among them.
According to a 2017 ABC report, more than 80 percent of its inhabitants are there on drug charges.
A prisoner in Kerobokan opened up to the outlet about the conditions he lived in, explaining there was no hot water and no real water pressure, so he had to rely on 'bucket showers'.
Another inmate said his cell block was meant to house 40 to 50 people, but instead was home to 87 prisoners, calling it 'overload'.
He said: “It’s not nice here, but we prisoners try to make the best of a bad situation.”
When Sandiford was arrested in 2012, 90 prisoners in Kerobokan's walls were awaiting execution.
While she is yet to face the firing squad, her lawyers hope that the changes in Indonesian law will allow her to return to the UK.
She would then be able to walk freely after spending so long behind bars on the southeast Asian island.
Topics: Death Row, Drugs, World News, UK News
Joshua Nair