A GRANDMOTHER originally from Redcar believes she may be executed by firing squad in a matter of weeks for drug smuggling.

Lindsay Sandiford, 58, was convicted of smuggling cocaine in Bali in Indonesia in 2013 has now been asked to sign a court document that formally confirms her death sentence.

Indonesia's new president, Joko Widodo, has pledged to show no mercy to foreigners convicted of drug crimes and last week five foreigners were shot dead by the state.

Sandiford, who has two sons in their 20s and a two-year-old granddaughter, has no legal representation after the British Government refused to fund a lawyer and the deadline for her to file an application for clemency has now passed.

She has told her sister, Hilary Parsons, that she doesn't understand the document she has been asked to sign is scared she is effectively agreeing to the sentence and could be shot in weeks.

Sandiford, a former legal secretary, was caught smuggling cocaine worth £1.6m from Thailand to Bali in 2012. She has already appealed the sentence once but lost. She wants the British Government to fund a second appeal which would cost £38,000. British judges have agreed that her case should be considered exceptional because the ring-leaders of the drug smuggling gang were only given jail terms.

However the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, has said he will not approve the financing of a second appeal.

Sandiford, who is separated from her husband, lived in London and then Cheltenham after leaving Redcar.