TBILISI (Reuters) -The family of Bella Culley, a pregnant British teenager arrested earlier this year on drug smuggling charges in Georgia, said on Tuesday they had paid $187,000 in compensation to a court to secure her release. Culley, 19, from Billingham in northeast England, went missing in Thailand before flying to the South Caucasus country’s […]
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Family pays $187,000 to free pregnant British teen held for drug trafficking in Georgia
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TBILISI (Reuters) -The family of Bella Culley, a pregnant British teenager arrested earlier this year on drug smuggling charges in Georgia, said on Tuesday they had paid $187,000 in compensation to a court to secure her release.
Culley, 19, from Billingham in northeast England, went missing in Thailand before flying to the South Caucasus country’s capital Tbilisi in May, where she was arrested at the airport on arrival. Georgian prosecutors say she was carrying 12 kg (26 lb) of marijuana and 2 kg of hashish in her luggage.
Drug smuggling carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years in Georgia. Culley has been held at a women’s prison in Rustavi, a city just outside Tbilisi.
Culley’s mother, Lyanne Kennedy, told reporters outside the Tbilisi courthouse on Tuesday that the family had paid 500,000 lari ($186,846) and were waiting for the funds to be credited to the relevant government account.
Asked about the health of her daughter Kennedy said: “She’s looking big, pregnant, but she looks strong.”
Culley’s lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, said the court would hold another hearing on the case next Monday.
Culley initially pleaded not guilty at a hearing in July to possession and trafficking illegal drugs, and said she had been tortured into transporting them.
She said she was a “clean person” and did not do drugs.
($1 = 2.6760 lari)
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by)