Lindsay Sandiford Asks Russell Brand To Save Her From Execution For Drug Smuggling; British Grandmother Was Friends With Bali Nine

Lindsay Sandiford, 58, a British woman on death row in Indonesia since 2013 for smuggling $2.5 million worth of cocaine into the country from England, is writing desperate letters to celebrities including Russell Brand and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson asking them to advocate on her behalf to get her death sentence overturned, reports the Independent.

During her time in Kerobakan jail in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sandiford became friends with the Australian ringleaders of the Bali Nine, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, who were executed April 28 by firing squad after serving a decade in prison for attempting to smuggle heroin from Indonesia to Australia.

"Mr Brand, you have spoken very eloquently and movingly about the plight of my friend Andrew who was a dear friend to me," Sandiford wrote. "I am truly heart-broken over his death because he helped me through some extremely difficult times after I was first sentenced to die. That is why I would like to ask for your help to support and promote my attempts to have a fair, final hearing into my own case. My situation is extremely urgent and if you can raise awareness of my case in any way it would be a great help and comfort to me."

Brand, comedian turned actor and activist, has spoken eloquently against Indonesia's draconian drug laws and appealed on social media and in recorded video messages to have Chan's and Sukumaran's death sentences overturned.

Citing Indonesia's "epic police corruption" and accusing them of "collaborating with drug dealers and facilitating drug dealers," Brand has argued that Chan and Sukumaran had been rehabilitated, and that their execution was merely a symbolic way for Jakarta's President Joko Widodo to demonstrate his power and to divert attention away from the country's dependence on the drug trade.

Said Brand in a plea to save Chan and Sukumaran,"It's an empty gesture, a mask and a veil that conceals the corruption of Indonesia and the true nature of international drug smuggling. Drug addiction and smuggling is an essential black economy, a part of our global culture."

Sandiford has never denied that she smuggled cocaine into Indonesia, but she has said that she did it to save her son, who had received death threats.

Sandiford told the Daily Mail that she was writing farewell letters to her family, and that she would not wear a blindfold at her execution. She reportedly said, "I'll look them in the eye and be singing 'Magic Moments' when they shoot me."