British woman faces death over Bali drug seizure

[Bobby Vinton]

A 56-year-old British woman has been sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking.
Lindsay Sandiford, who is originally from Redcar in Teesside, was arrested last May after police in Bali said they found 4.8kg of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We can confirm that a British national is facing the death penalty in Indonesia.
"We remain in close contact with that national and continue to provide consular assistance.
"The UK remains strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances."
Sandiford was sentenced after being found guilty of violating the country's strict drug laws by the Denpasar District Court.
In the court's verdict, a judge panel headed by Amser Simanjuntak concluded that Sandiford has damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government's programme of drug annihilation.
The cocaine she smuggled was worth around $2.5m (€1.9m), the Associated Press reported.
Prosecutors had said during the trial last month that they were seeking a 15-year prison term, and not pursuing the maximum penalty for drug trafficking, which is death.
Sandiford previously told the court she became involved only because "the lives of my children were in danger".
In her witness statement, she said: "I would like to begin by apologising to the Republic of Indonesia and the Indonesian people for my involvement.
"I would never have become involved in something like this but the lives of my children were in danger and I felt I had to protect them."
During the trial, Sandiford's lawyer read out a statement from her son in which he said: "I love my mother very much and have a very close relationship with her.
"I know that she would do anything to protect me. I cannot imagine what I would do if she was sentenced to death in relation to these charges."

 

[Cook My Sock]

Tough shit.

 

[Bobby Vinton]

Tough shit.

You'd need to be nuts to deal/carry drugs in some of those Country's - Does China hand out similar sentences ? Or is it only the Muslim countrys

 

[Mick Lyons]

She won't do it again.

 

[longbigandjuicy]

Hope she learnt her lesson

 

[Bobby Vinton]

These guys might consider themselves lucky ?


By CATHY HAYES, IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Thursday, August 23, 2012, 8:09 AM



The brother of the two Irish men who were sentenced to 11-year jail terms in a South American jail for drug smuggling, has spoken out over his torment.

Dermot, 20, and Leigh O’Neill, 24, from Athlone in County Westmeath were sentenced by a Venezuelan court last week for drugs offences. Leigh has pleaded guilty to the offences, while his younger brother Dermot continues to protest his innocence.

The Irishmen will now serve out their sentence at San Juan de Los Morros jail in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

Venezuela is known for its overcrowded prisons which wage a constant battle with armed inmates. This past weekend, at least 25 people were killed during a prison riot and dozens were wounded when inmates opened fire inside at Yare I prison south of Caracas on Sunday.

According to the non-governmental Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (VPO), more than 50,000 inmates are housed in prisons built to hold 14,000. It is within such an overcrowded facility that the two Irishmen will serve out their sentences.

It began last March when the two brothers had been travelling with Irishman Martin ‘Butch’ Beirne in Venezuela.

Beirne, who had addresses in Sligo and Roscommon, died in a Caracas hotel after a cocaine filled condom burst in his stomach.

Police later arrested the pair at the offices of the Irish consulate in nearby Avenida de Mexico.

After police examined Leigh O’Neill they discovered he had “foreign objects” in his body. He later passed 92 balloons filled with 725 grams of cocaine.

But an x-ray of younger brother Dermot showed he had not swallowed any drugs.

Now, Daniel O’Neill, the middle brother of the accused men, insists that Dermot is innocent.

“Leigh admitted what he did. He was pleading guilty. He accepts his mistakes,’ he told the Irish Sun.

“Dermie was pleading innocent. He was asleep when the guy died.”

“My brother woke him up. It was all a shock to him — he thought they were there on a holiday.”
During the trial, Leigh told the court his brother had “no knowledge” that he and Beirne were working as drug mules in South America.

He claimed that deceased Beirne had “proposed the business” to smuggle cocaine.

State prosecutors later ruled that Demot was indirectly linked to the crime and the two men should receive “the highest penalty”.

Daniel explained: “He was given two options.”

“He was told if he pleaded not guilty he’d be sent back to San Juan for four years waiting for a trial — and he’d probably be found guilty and get 20 years. But if he pleaded guilty he’d get out on parole after three or four years. So he pleaded guilty.

 

[Bobby Vinton]

Irish sun piece,I cut half of this as its a rehash of the above




Leigh and Dermot expected a sentence of no more than four to eight years each if convicted.
CICPC forensics police found a digital weighing scales and traces of cocaine in room 221 in Hotel Mayor where all three men had stayed on the night they were arrested last March. A receptionist there told the court that one of the Irishmen, believed to be Leigh, approached the desk at 4am with another guest from room 221.
The man, later identified as Beirne, took ill and had a “heart attack”. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
A Venezuelan source close to the case said Leigh had been attending to Beirne in the reception.
The source explained: “He started coughing up blood and died in his arms.” Several of the balloons Beirne had swallowed had burst. Distraught Leigh then went back to his room to tell Dermot what had happened.
Daniel added: “He was woke up out of the bed, and he told him Butch had died and about the drugs. Dermie was shocked.”
The O’Neill brothers then quickly left the scene. Police later arrested the pair at the offices of the Irish consulate in nearby Avenida de Mexico. The source close to the case claimed Leigh was tortured by the officers. The source said: “The police said to him, ‘Right, we’ll show you Venezuelan justice.’ They put black bags over his head and beat him up.
“After a while, when he started coughing badly, they took him to hospital and he had his stomach pumped and he passed out the balloons of coke.
“Even though they beat him, in a way they probably saved his life.”


Daniel recalls the awful moment he received news of the arrest of his two siblings. He said: “It was terrible, I was shocked.”
When he heard last week Leigh and Dermot had been sentenced to 11 years, he said he had “just a lot of empty feelings”.
He added: “It’s terrible. The fact is that one of my brothers was there at the wrong time.”
Daniel also told how he had to break the news to Dermot’s 17-year-old girlfriend.
She’s due to give birth to their child next month. Daniel continued: “She’s in bits — she’ll have to give birth alone now.
“It’s all too much drama. I don’t know what to say to her. I’m just doing what I can.”
Leigh has a child with his girlfriend, but Daniel said he has had no contact with her.
He says himself and his two brothers had a difficult upbringing, adding: “We were raised by our granny. She died in March last year.
“After that everything went all pear-shaped. We all took it very badly.”
Daniel also shared some details of his prison visit to his brothers.
He said: “I brought in a few things — clothes, food, a little one-ring stove. It wasn’t much, but they had nothing.”
He said an Irish priest based in Venezuela was visiting his two brothers and providing a little solace and support.
Daniel admitted: “I can’t thank him enough. He’s been so good to all of us.”
Asked if Leigh told him how he got involved in the drugs deal with Beirne, Daniel said. “No. They don’t really talk. They’re just in shock and don’t know what to say to each other.
“It’s very hard. We’re here, they’re there. When they’re down, we’re down.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was providing consular assistance.
Another Irishman who spent more than two years in one of Venezuela’s worst prisons has advised the Athlone brothers to “get on with their time”.
Dubliner Paul Keany was sexually assaulted by police officers, stabbed by inmates, and had to flee for cover when gun battles broke out between warring cell-block gangs.
The plumber recounted his time locked up in Los Teques nick in a recent book, The Cocaine Diaries: A Venezuelan Prison Nightmare.
Keany — who was sentenced to eight years but fled South America after getting parole in just two years — said yesterday the O’Neills should find work in the jail and stay out of trouble.
He told the Irish Sun: “I’d say to those lads to keep their heads down and get on with their time.
“Get a job doing anything to keep busy — washing clothes, making coffee, whatever.”
The Westmeath pair should also be mature in the face of dangers in the jail.
“They might be young and full of bravado — but bravado is no use when the bullets are flying. They need to run for their life, and for the right place.”
A source who visited the Athlone pair in San Juan de Los Morros said the O’Neills’ fate is in the hands of wing inmate bosses.
The source said: “They’re better armed than the guards at the gates.
“Guns with lasers. Grenades. Everything.
“The National Guard, who police the exterior, have an understanding with them. They said to the wing bosses, ‘We’ll watch the gates and the walls, you keep the discipline inside.’
“They don’t have the manpower or money to police inside the jails.”

 

[Ch4nc3]

Zero sympathy for anyone who gets caught bringing drugs into Indonesia. Prior to landing in the country an announcement is made on flights that drug smuggling is punishable by death. The first thing you see in every airport is a picture of a gun an and warning that drug traffickers will be executed. Even if you get caught with the makings of a joint you'll do guaranteed time and end up having to pay a lash of "fines" to get your sentence commuted. That English woman will probably get her sentence commuted to 20 years if she can afford to pay up.

Interesting thread about nicked drug smugglers and their respective sentences in Indonesia here http://www.livinginindonesiaforum.org/showthread.php/18291-Another-Possible-Guest-Of-The-State

 

[Naked Giant Attack]

Zero sympathy for anyone who gets caught bringing drugs into Indonesia. Prior to landing in the country an announcement is made on flights that drug smuggling is punishable by death. The first thing you see in every airport is a picture of a gun an and warning that drug traffickers will be executed. Even if you get caught with the makings of a joint you'll do guaranteed time and end up having to pay a lash of "fines" to get your sentence commuted. That English woman will probably get her sentence commuted to 20 years if she can afford to pay up.

Interesting thread about nicked drug smugglers and their respective sentences in Indonesia here http://www.livinginindonesiaforum.org/showthread.php/18291-Another-Possible-Guest-Of-The-State

Were you in KL in December?

 

[Ch4nc3]

Yup.