Thread: Brit woman arrested in Bali smuggling cocaine !

Thanks for the powerful insight and summary, Milkman, as ever your commentary is cutting edge.

^Thank you, thank you.

Always one to ad my wisdom in these parts.

Brits Face 20-Year Bali Drug Charge

Denpasar. British couple Julian Ponder and Rachel Dougall are facing a 20-year jail sentence for accepting 4.7 kilograms of cocaine from another British woman Lindsay June Sandiford in Bali.

Police said the couple were members of a drug ring comprising four Britons and one Indian national. “The suspects will soon be tried now that the [dossiers] have been handed over,” prosecutor Ketut Sujaya said after receiving the dossiers from Bali Police on Wednesday.

According to the dossiers, both suspects should be charged for accepting cocaine weighing more than 1 kilogram, breaching a clause in a 2009 drug law that is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The couple were arrested after Sandiford told investigators she was supposed to hand over the cocaine to Ponder.

Bali Police arrested Ponder and Dougall in their rented villa in Tabanan, where police found 23 grams of cocaine with Ponder and 45 grams with Dougall.

The couple, who are being held at a Bali Police facility, will soon be moved to Kerobokan Prison.

“Since the [dossiers] have been submitted, their detention at the Bali Police automatically expires and they have to be moved to the penitentiary,” said Ida Bagus Argita Candra, another prosecutor.

Dougall underwent treatment for mental illness in June. Doctors said she suffered acute psychosomatic illness due to a drastic change of life.

Ari Sunardi, the couple’s attorney, said he was ready to assist his clients in the trial.

“I will help to get lighter sentences for our clients, lower than what the prosecutors demanded,” he said.

Prosecutors in Bali said on Monday that Sandiford would face drug-smuggling charges carrying the death penalty.

Eko Indarno, a spokesman for the provincial prosecutors’ office, said the dossier on Sandiford, 56, had been completed ahead of her expected trial.

Suspects scheduled for trial are usually detained at Kerobokan, but Sandiford’s lawyer, Nengah Sudiarta, said his client requested she be held at Bali Police headquarters, where she has been held since her arrest on May 19.

“She is not ready, mentally, to stay at Kerobokan,” he said.

Sandiford maintains that she did not know what was in the suitcase she was caught with, which she says she was handed by a contact in Bangkok. The luggage contained drugs in the lining. She earlier told The Mail on Sunday she knew she was carrying “something dodgy.”

So she ratted out the other two, and is still facing the death penalty. Wow.

Originally Posted by Sir Wilson

Kerobokan Prison.

I know prisons are often rough, but what is the reputation of this Kerobokan prison?

Originally Posted by Sir Wilson

Ari Sunardi, the couple’s attorney, said he was ready to assist his clients in the trial. “I will help to get lighter sentences for our clients, lower than what the prosecutors demanded,”

Have they admitted their guilt ? Or is it a done deal ?

Originally Posted by Sir Wilson

Dougall underwent treatment for mental illness in June. Doctors said she suffered acute psychosomatic illness due to a drastic change of life.

“She is not ready, mentally, to stay at Kerobokan,” he said.

Well you sort of get that when your drug smuggling scum don't ya.

Originally Posted by Sir Wilson

Dougall underwent treatment for mental illness in June. Doctors said she suffered acute psychosomatic illness due to a drastic change of life.

I like that "drastic change of life"

same would have happened if she had made a lot of money, I suppose

I know she's a cold hearted evil drug runner, but it seems a bit sad, she just looks like someones gran.

Tell that to the people she ratted out, and still is up for the death penalty. The looks were the whole idea of the gang.

i love bali. spent a few months surfing kuta beach and Sanur back in the late 90s

No death penalty for anyone here.

Denpasar. Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for a 56-year-old British housewife accused of attempting to smuggle 4.7 kilograms of cocaine into Bali, the office announced on Thursday.

Prosecutor Lie Putra Setiawan instead pushed for a 15-year sentence for Lindsay June Sandiford, explaining that the woman was “already elderly” and should be spared the death penalty. She also faces Rp 2 billion ($207,210) in fines or an additional six months in jail.

Customs officials at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport allegedly found 4.7 kilograms of cocaine lining Sandiford’s suitcases. The drugs had an estimated street value of more than Rp 23 billion, police said.

Sandiford told police that a fellow British national, Julian Anthony Ponder, threatened to kill her son if she didn’t try to smuggle the cocaine through customs. She allegedly acquired the drugs in Thailand with Ponder, his wife Rachel Lisa Dougall and Paul Beales.

Sandiford testified that Dougall purchased the drugs, Beales packed them in her suitcases and Ponder planned to accept the delivery in Bali. The four then boarded separate flights out of Bangkok to avoid raising suspicion, police said.

In a separate trial, a panel of judges led by Judge John Tony Hutauruk sentenced Dougall to one year in prison, following a lenient recommendation from prosecutor Putu Astawa. The prosecution charged Dougall with failing to report a drug-related crime, explaining that investigators failed to discover any evidence that Dougall took part in planning the smuggling attempt.

Her husband faces the death penalty as the alleged mastermind behind the drug smuggling scheme.

Beales was sentenced to four years in jail on Wednesday for possession of 3.1 grams of hashish. Nandagopal Akkineni, an Indian national arrested in the bust, was sentenced to five years on Tuesday for possession of 279 grams of Ecstasy.

Sandiford plans to take the stand in her own defense, attorney Ezra Karo Karo said.

Her trial will resume on Jan. 3, Judge Amser Simanjuntak said.

“If the defendant does not present a defense, the court will proceed with the reading of the verdict,” Amser said.

Interesting turn of events here, The more serious charges against Ponder have been dropped. The prosecution now want him sentenced for 7 years for possession and fined £65.000.

Hooray, Sandiford gets the death penalty. I hope they have a good rope, she's a right porker.

Originally Posted by Sir Wilson

No death penalty for anyone here.

Bali drug trial: British woman gets death sentence.
A 56-year-old British woman has been sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking.

Lindsay Sandiford was arrested in May after Bali police, carrying out a routine customs check, found 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase.
BBC News - Bali drug trial: British woman gets death sentence

Incredible..
Anders Breivik killed 77 people and is living it up in a cushy Norwegian prison for the rest of his days..

This woman smuggles some drugs and is going to die

The world is a fcked up place!

Grassing her buddies doesn't appear to have helped her much......

Her word against theirs I suppose? They weren't caught with 5 kg of coke.

She did, however, make a controlled delivery of the dope to two of her colleagues, which certainly dropped them right into it. She's been singing like a canary since she was pinched.

Ouch!

Denpasar. An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced a 56-year-old British grandmother to death for smuggling cocaine into the resort island of Bali.

"We found Lindsay Sandiford convincingly and legally guilty for importing narcotics... and sentenced the defendant to death," judge Amser Simanjuntak told Denpasar district court.

Sandiford was arrested at Bali's international airport in May with 4.79 kilograms (10.6 pounds) of cocaine stashed in her suitcase. Police have said she then helped mount a sting to net three Britons and an Indian on drugs charges.

The harsh sentence came as a surprise after prosecutors last month recommended Sandiford serve only 15 years in jail, saying she deserved leniency as she had admitted her crime and behaved politely in court.

However, another judge on the panel, Bagus Komang Wijaya Adi, said Tuesday "there are no mitigating circumstances" to allow for leniency in the case.

"All evidence was incriminating against the defendant," he said.

Indonesia enforces stiff penalties against drug trafficking, with penalties of death and life imprisonment.

Agence France-Presse
British Grandmother Sentenced to Death for Drugs in Bali | The Jakarta Globe

How long before sentance is served though?

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

She did, however, make a controlled delivery of the dope to two of her colleagues, which certainly dropped them right into it.

Not so as they were basically cleared recently, as I recall.

Originally Posted by superman

Not so as they were basically cleared recently, as I recall.

Not so much cleared as paying their way into reduced charges.