A British drugs smuggler facing the death penalty in Indonesia has said she is “deeply saddened” at the deaths of two Australians executed in Indonesia.
Lindsay Sandiford, 58, said her fellow inmates were reformed men who had “touched the lives of a great many people after helping to rehabilitate prisoners”.
Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, were killed by firing squad in Besi prison on the island of Nusakambangan despite pleas for clemency from the Australian government.
The men were ringleaders of a group of seven other Australians arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.2kg of heroin out of Indonesia to Australia.
The other seven members of the so-called “Bali Nine” are serving either life or 20 years in prison.
In a statement issued from Kerobokan Prison in Bali through her lawyer, Sandiford said: “I am deeply saddened to learn that Myuran Sukumaran and my dear friend Andrew Chan have been executed.
“Many things have been said about whether Andrew and Myuran deserved to die for their crimes. The Andrew and Myuran I knew were men who did good and touched the lives of a great many people, including myself.”
Sandiford, a grandmother from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was arrested in 2012 after customs officers found 4.8kg of cocaine in her luggage when she arrived at Bali airport.
She has always protested her innocence maintaining she was forced to transport the drugs under duress because her children had been threatened.
She said Chan was a “close friend and confidante” when they were in Kerobokan prison together.
“He counselled and helped me through exceptionally difficult times after I was sentenced to death in 2013,” she said. “Myuran and Andrew used their time in Kerobokan to make life better for everyone around them.”