A BRITISH teenager arrested for smuggling drugs is “depressed, confused and scared” as she faces possible life imprisonment in Georgia, her lawyer has said.
Pregnant Bella May Culley, 18, from County Durham, has appeared in court after being arrested in Tbilisi.
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The teenager had been reported missing while on holiday in Thailand, but she was arrested some 4,000 miles away in Georgia.
Lawyer Ia Todua said: “The detainee says that she is pregnant.
“She needs special examination and attention.
“In addition, in my assessment, she was depressed, confused and scared.”
Todua told RFE/RL: “When the accusation was presented, given that it was a foreign environment for her, it was her first time communicating with law enforcement officers, we agreed on such a position that she should exercise her right to remain silent in order to develop herself.”
Todua revealed that Culley’s father Neil was flying to Tbilisi.
Her dad lives in Vietnam, has been travelling to the Eastern European nation to be by his daughter’s side.
She was detained after drugs were allegedly found in her suitcase after arriving from Thailand.
It is possible that a separate legal team will be hired.
The British embassy in Tbilisi said: “We are assisting the family of the British woman detained in Georgia and are also in contact with the local authorities.”
Law enforcement is expected to contact the suspect “in a few days” in her detention jail.
A report said that neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Customs Department of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance in Tbilisi say which country the British woman entered Georgia from, nor whether Georgia was her final destination.
Any onward travel plans have not been disclosed.
But Todua told RFE/RL that according to the case materials, Culley arrived in Georgia from Thailand and, according to her travel tickets, intended to stay in Georgia.
The suspect is accused of carrying 34 hermetically sealed packages containing marijuana as well as 20 packages of hashish into the ex-Soviet republic.
RIOTS, HUNGER STRIKES AND STRIP SEARCHES… LIFE IN A BRUTAL GEORGIA PRISON
A report by Georgia’s ombudsman into Women’s Penitentiary No. 5 outlines the horrors that could await the Brit teenager.
“When prisoners are received at the No.5 Facility,
they are inspected naked and are requested to squat, which the inmates consider degrading treatment,” the report reads.
“According to inmates, this procedure is especially humiliating and intensive during an inmate’s menstrual cycle.”
Hygiene problems are said to be rampant, with reports of no running drinking water and clogged drains.
Just earlier this year, the journalist Mzia Amaglobeli went on hunger strike inside the women’s prison in protest against Georgia’s government.
In 2006, a Tbilisi prison saw seven inmates killed and 17 seriously injured in one of the country’s worst ever prison riots.
Authorities were accused of using excessive force.
A Human Rights Watch report has found Georgia’s prisons are “severely overcrowded” – which threatens the safety of inmates.
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She was reported missing in Thailand – where she had been travelling – before her arrest.
Her family raised the alarm after she failed to contact anyone since Saturday.
A loved-one said: “She is just a student – she doesn’t really go out or do anything like that. She just wanted a break so took herself to Thailand.
“She must have become mixed up with someone. She must have met someone who has taken advantage of her.”
Georgia’s Interior Ministry says she could face 20 years or even a life sentence.
On Tuesday, Georgian authorities released photos of Bella being led handcuffed into a police station.
Culley’s paternal grandfather said: “I’m terrified that she’s in for a long sentence. I might never see her again – I’m 80 years old.
“She’s got sucked into something, somehow. She’s not an international drug trafficker.
“It’s all just very strange and at the moment we just don’t have any answers. We don’t know what to think.”
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