Agencies/London

Lawyers for British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford have launched an urgent new legal challenge over a government refusal to fund her appeal against a death sentence imposed by an Indonesian court after she was found guilty of drug smuggling.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office refused as a matter of government policy a request to pay for “an adequate lawyer” to represent Sandiford, 56, from Cheltenham, at the Bali High Court appeal.

She was sentenced to death by firing squad by a court in Bali for taking £1.6mn of cocaine on to the island.

In January, the UK High Court upheld the government’s stance of not providing legal funding for British nationals arrested abroad, even in exceptional circumstances.

After the High Court gave its decision, Sandiford received a private donation of over £2,500 that enabled her to be represented by an Indonesian lawyer at the subsequent Bali appeal. Having lost that first appeal, she is now in a race against time to raise money to take her case to Indonesia’s Supreme Court in Jakarta.

Three judges in the UK Court of Appeal are being asked to overturn the High Court decision on funding. They heard that Sandiford needs about £8,000 to fight on. A sum of £2,000 has already been found, but around £6,000 is still needed from the government as money from private sources following publicity was “fully exhausted”, said lawyers for Sandiford, who is not entitled to legal aid in Indonesia.

Aidan O’Neill, a Scottish QC, argued on Sandiford’s behalf that it was reasonable to expect the Foreign Office to provide funding and the case was of “overwhelming importance” because it involved the death penalty.