A BRITISH drug smuggler's fight to avoid being executed has been supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Lindsay Sandiford, who once lived in Redcar, was sentenced to death by firing squad following her conviction in Bali after she was arrested with £1.6 million worth of cocaine in her possession.

Supporters on a website campaigning to raise funds for the legal battle to fight her sentence have already written to comedian turned social activist Russell Brand and billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson after both spoke out against the execution of her fellow prisoners, known as the Bali Nine.

Now a letter to Ms Sandiford, reportedly from the office of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, has appeared on the campaign’s Facebook page.

The letter, signed by Kay Brock, the chief of staff to the Archbishop, said that at the Archbishop’s request she had been in touch with the Embassy in Jakarta, through the Consulate in Bali, to ask for their help and support.

The letter continues: “The Archbishop has made and continues to make his opposition to the death penalty known on every appropriate occasion, but unfortunately the number of cases makes it impossible to take on individual ones.”

The 58-year-old is now the last prisoner on death row on the island’s Kerobokan jail after the other inmates were executed by firing squad last month.

Sandiford, who lived in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was sentenced to death in January 2013 after admitting the drug smuggling offence.

However, the grandmother and mother of two claimed she had been coerced by threats to her son’s life, and has since appealed against her sentence without success.

After Ms Sandiford wrote to Sir Richard Branson earlier this month, he released a statement which said: “I strongly believe that the death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment, and every execution is one execution too many.

"We are following Lindsay Sandiford’s and other cases closely and fully support efforts that are currently under way to aid her appeal.”

International human rights lawyer Craig Tuck has also joined the fight to save Sandiford from the death sentence - calling her case the “most important criminal appeal on the planet”.

He said last week that her legal team is in the process of preparing her final appeal to the Supreme Court of Indonesia – commonly referred to as a PK.

A Notice of Intention to Appeal was served on all the relevant authorities in Indonesia advising them that we are preparing the numerous grounds of appeal and that process will take close to six months.

Supporters are fundraising for her appeal at lindsaysandiford.org