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Saturday, 18 May 2013
BRAVE JOURNALISM: Exposing Bali's Drugs Underworld From The Inside
[Review By BR Good (c) drugjail.com]
Snowing In Bali - by Kathryn Bonella
A wealthy playboy is running scared. His years of drug dealing are over. The cars, the girls, the fun. All over. A snitch has been arrested - he must run.
Meanwhile, a rat scuttles across the filthy concrete floor of Bali's Kerobokan Prison. A prisoner serving years for drug trafficking grabs it, kills it with his bare hands and cooks a 'tasty meal'. A mentally disturbed woman, naked from the waist down, has sexual intercourse with a male prisoner through the bars of a cell.
Going deep inside Bali's underworld - spending hours, weeks, months, talking to Bali's most dangerous criminals is why journalist Kathryn Bonella's books are bestsellers. Most journalists would shy away from interviewing these characters. Choosing instead to limit their research to libraries and newspaper archives. What if it goes wrong? What if they are accused of being a cop? What if the prisoner turns violent or makes demands? With corruption rife, no guard will save them. No editor would dare send a journalist on such an assignment. It's too risky. The decision to enter the lions den has to be the journalist's alone. As a leading authority on Bali's underworld, Bonella invites us into a world that the tourist has no idea about. As they calmly enter a bar, and smile at the man working the door - they have no idea he is a member of a notorious gang (it begins with L but I won't type it in case they kill me!)
Snowing in Bali (snow is dealer-speak for cocaine) is my most 'edge-of-seat read' since Hotel K. The dealers are risking a lot - just discussing their crimes could cause a lot of problems for them. And that is why the book is so enjoyable. We are seeing into a world that we are not supposed to.
There is a theme that runs through the book that I found particularly thought-provoking: why do so many drug lords, not get out once they've made their millions and BEFORE they get busted? It can't just be greed - it must also be the thrill of the chase.
I wait to hear the fate of two men, featured in the book, who are on death row.
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| Snowing In Bali By Kathryn Bonella |
A wealthy playboy is running scared. His years of drug dealing are over. The cars, the girls, the fun. All over. A snitch has been arrested - he must run.
Meanwhile, a rat scuttles across the filthy concrete floor of Bali's Kerobokan Prison. A prisoner serving years for drug trafficking grabs it, kills it with his bare hands and cooks a 'tasty meal'. A mentally disturbed woman, naked from the waist down, has sexual intercourse with a male prisoner through the bars of a cell.
Going deep inside Bali's underworld - spending hours, weeks, months, talking to Bali's most dangerous criminals is why journalist Kathryn Bonella's books are bestsellers. Most journalists would shy away from interviewing these characters. Choosing instead to limit their research to libraries and newspaper archives. What if it goes wrong? What if they are accused of being a cop? What if the prisoner turns violent or makes demands? With corruption rife, no guard will save them. No editor would dare send a journalist on such an assignment. It's too risky. The decision to enter the lions den has to be the journalist's alone. As a leading authority on Bali's underworld, Bonella invites us into a world that the tourist has no idea about. As they calmly enter a bar, and smile at the man working the door - they have no idea he is a member of a notorious gang (it begins with L but I won't type it in case they kill me!)
Snowing in Bali (snow is dealer-speak for cocaine) is my most 'edge-of-seat read' since Hotel K. The dealers are risking a lot - just discussing their crimes could cause a lot of problems for them. And that is why the book is so enjoyable. We are seeing into a world that we are not supposed to.
There is a theme that runs through the book that I found particularly thought-provoking: why do so many drug lords, not get out once they've made their millions and BEFORE they get busted? It can't just be greed - it must also be the thrill of the chase.
I wait to hear the fate of two men, featured in the book, who are on death row.
Friday, 17 May 2013
Lindsay Sandiford Radio Phone-in
A recent radio discussion about the Lindsay Sandiford death sentence case.
Thursday, 16 May 2013
A Chilling Connection: Lindsay Sandiford, India and a Decade Old Drug Death
[by BR Good (c) Drugjail.com all rights reserved.]
Ten years ago a British backpacker was found dead of a drugs overdose in the same Northern Indian region that Lindsay Sandiford had been living for the past 5 years. An area notorious for heroin and cannabis cultivation. Known as the 'Valley of Holy Smoke'. In 2012, the Times of India reported that 25 poppy cultivation sites had been discovered by authorities using satellite surveillance. Cannabis farms hidden under thick jungle are suspected to be much higher in number.
Ten years ago a British backpacker was found dead of a drugs overdose in the same Northern Indian region that Lindsay Sandiford had been living for the past 5 years. An area notorious for heroin and cannabis cultivation. Known as the 'Valley of Holy Smoke'. In 2012, the Times of India reported that 25 poppy cultivation sites had been discovered by authorities using satellite surveillance. Cannabis farms hidden under thick jungle are suspected to be much higher in number.
In 2003, the body of Anna Bartlett, a 25 year old British student was found in a river in the Himalayan hill resort of Manali in the Himachal Pradesh region of Northern India. She had first visited the region in her late teens and it was there that she was introduced to the drugs that would eventually ruin her life.
The once promising student had just been released from a prison in the United Arab Emirates where she had been jailed for life (commuted to 3 years in a bizarre twist of fate and luck) . Bartlett, who was arrested after a flight from Germany, had approximately 50 wraps of cocaine inside her stomach. The case was reduced from a life sentence to 10 years and she was later given clemency after 3 years, and released. Her fellow travellers, all in their 20's also faced court and jail.
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To her heartbroken but relieved parents in UK, (father a retired English teacher and librarian mother) it was supposed to be a fresh start. A place had been reserved at university in UK so she could begin an Ecology course. In reality, their daughter was still heavily involved with a group of young travellers enjoying a drug fuelled party lifestyle in a region of India so notorious for drug use. Her parents would never see her again. [link to story]
In an interview shortly after her release, Bartlett stated: "I am deeply ashamed of what I did. I now realise that drugs kill thousands of vulnerable people across the world. I was a smuggler but, at the time, I cared only about cash not people."
Fast Forward 10 years and Lindsay Sandiford, a 56 year old British grandmother is arrested for trafficking 4.7kg of cocaine into Bali, Indonesia. It soon emerges that Sandiford, 56, had been living for the past 5 years in the very same region in India - Himachal Pradesh. Her Kullu Valley home being smack in the heart of the notorious cannabis farmland. Media quickly learned about a husband and a home they had built together. Could this be legitimate? Some genuine romance with a man of a similar age looking to retire together in what just happens to be cannabis country? In April 2013, Sandiford told a journalist during a prison interview that the husband was in fact a 26 year old 'boyfriend'. The picture begins to get murkier.
A Hindistan Times report revealed that Sandiford was far from the British housewife and grandmother that she had initially be portrayed as - a story the media have blindly accepted. FULL ARTICLE
Sandiford had openly told media, in a face-to-face Daily Mail interview, that she lived in the mountains of Kullu, in a house made of mud, brick and stone. Her local boyfriend, age 26, and his father and brother had apparently helped her to build the house in the remote region of Parvati valley.
One thing is clear. Both women's lives have been damaged by their connection with an area that one travel guide describes as idyllic, with roaring rivers, pretty mountain villages, orchards and terraced fields, thick pine forests and snow-flecked ridges.
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Anna Bartlett.
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View Larger Map
To her heartbroken but relieved parents in UK, (father a retired English teacher and librarian mother) it was supposed to be a fresh start. A place had been reserved at university in UK so she could begin an Ecology course. In reality, their daughter was still heavily involved with a group of young travellers enjoying a drug fuelled party lifestyle in a region of India so notorious for drug use. Her parents would never see her again. [link to story]
In an interview shortly after her release, Bartlett stated: "I am deeply ashamed of what I did. I now realise that drugs kill thousands of vulnerable people across the world. I was a smuggler but, at the time, I cared only about cash not people."
Fast Forward 10 years and Lindsay Sandiford, a 56 year old British grandmother is arrested for trafficking 4.7kg of cocaine into Bali, Indonesia. It soon emerges that Sandiford, 56, had been living for the past 5 years in the very same region in India - Himachal Pradesh. Her Kullu Valley home being smack in the heart of the notorious cannabis farmland. Media quickly learned about a husband and a home they had built together. Could this be legitimate? Some genuine romance with a man of a similar age looking to retire together in what just happens to be cannabis country? In April 2013, Sandiford told a journalist during a prison interview that the husband was in fact a 26 year old 'boyfriend'. The picture begins to get murkier.
A Hindistan Times report revealed that Sandiford was far from the British housewife and grandmother that she had initially be portrayed as - a story the media have blindly accepted. FULL ARTICLE
Sandiford had openly told media, in a face-to-face Daily Mail interview, that she lived in the mountains of Kullu, in a house made of mud, brick and stone. Her local boyfriend, age 26, and his father and brother had apparently helped her to build the house in the remote region of Parvati valley.
One thing is clear. Both women's lives have been damaged by their connection with an area that one travel guide describes as idyllic, with roaring rivers, pretty mountain villages, orchards and terraced fields, thick pine forests and snow-flecked ridges.
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Monday, 22 April 2013
Death Row Appeal: Lindsay Sandiford's Legal Fund Runs Out
Various media reports claim that Lindsay Sandiford's death row appeal, (deadline this Thursday 25 April) to the Indonesian Supreme Court, is in jeopardy due to lack of funds.
She has no more funds and is knitting furiously in order to sell enough gear (clothing, not drugs) in time. Even her most loyal supporters, the 'charity' Reprieve, are not willing to help. Their investigator Zoe Bedford has said: "Lindsay long ago ran out of money for paying her legal fees...She now potentially faces the firing squad simply because she has no money to hire a lawyer for her appeal...Never has there been a clearer example of how the death penalty falls predominantly on those who do not have the funds to defend themselves."
Last week Sandiford attempted to 'flatter the Indonesian authorities' by suggesting, in an interview with the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, that her time in the run down Kerobokan Prison is spent amongst a caring group of guards and 'friendly prisoners' and that she would not swap it for a prison in UK.
Unexpected events:
It has also been revealed that the judge who gave Sandiford the unexpected death sentence, has died of a heart attack at the age of 55. Richard Shears, a senior Daily Mail journalist has written:
'Amser Simanjuntak, a senior official in Bali, was known to be extremely keen on the death penalty - meaning that Sandiford could have escaped with a lesser punishment if her trial had been delayed'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309371/Lindsay-Sandiford-judge-dies-heart-attack-revealed-reputation-harsh-sentences.html#ixzz2RC26OiFR
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| Knitting in prison (image source) |
She has no more funds and is knitting furiously in order to sell enough gear (clothing, not drugs) in time. Even her most loyal supporters, the 'charity' Reprieve, are not willing to help. Their investigator Zoe Bedford has said: "Lindsay long ago ran out of money for paying her legal fees...She now potentially faces the firing squad simply because she has no money to hire a lawyer for her appeal...Never has there been a clearer example of how the death penalty falls predominantly on those who do not have the funds to defend themselves."
Last week Sandiford attempted to 'flatter the Indonesian authorities' by suggesting, in an interview with the UK's Daily Mail newspaper, that her time in the run down Kerobokan Prison is spent amongst a caring group of guards and 'friendly prisoners' and that she would not swap it for a prison in UK.
Unexpected events:
It has also been revealed that the judge who gave Sandiford the unexpected death sentence, has died of a heart attack at the age of 55. Richard Shears, a senior Daily Mail journalist has written:
'Amser Simanjuntak, a senior official in Bali, was known to be extremely keen on the death penalty - meaning that Sandiford could have escaped with a lesser punishment if her trial had been delayed'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309371/Lindsay-Sandiford-judge-dies-heart-attack-revealed-reputation-harsh-sentences.html#ixzz2RC26OiFR
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[by BR Good (c) Drugjail.com all rights reserved.] Ten years ago a British backpacker was found dead of a drugs overdose in the same North... -
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A recent radio discussion about the Lindsay Sandiford death sentence case. -
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Khadija Shah Facing Death Sentence: 'Reprieve' Helps Second British Woman On Death Row Drugs Charges[By BR Good (c) drugjail.com] Name: Khadija Shah (25) Nationality: British Charge: Heroin Smuggling (possible death sentence) Detention:... -
Various media reports claim that Lindsay Sandiford's death row appeal, (deadline this Thursday 25 April) to the Indonesian Supreme Court... -
[By BR Good, editor Drugjail.com] Lindsay Sandiford, the British grandmother facing death in Indonesia for drug smuggling, has lost her lat...
