Pregnant British drug mule Bella Culley to be launched from jail
Bella Culley, 19, was expected to be sentenced to jail time in Georgia after admitting to smuggling drugs into the country earlier this year but now it has emerged that she will be freed
Bella Culley, a pregnant British woman caught up in drug smuggling, The teenager has already spent nearly half a year behind bars since her arrest at the international airport of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi on May 10. Her family, including her mum Lyanne Kennedy, 44, a charity worker, and her dad Niel Culley, 49, an oil rig technician, forked out a hefty fine of 500,000 Georgian Lari (£138,000) as part of a plea agreement with Georgian prosecutors.
It is alleged that the 19-year-old, from Teesside, tried to smuggle 12 kilograms (26.4 pounds) of marijuana and two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of hashish into the country.
Bella’s solicitor had previously indicated that the amount of the fine would influence the duration of her sentence – with the potential for imprisonment being waived, depending on the sum paid. It’s understood that the court initially demanded 800,000 Georgian Lari (£220,000) for her release, reports the Mirror.
Culley’s mother, Lyanne told the BBC that her daughter has been transferred to a prison with a mother and baby unit. She was previously being held at Georgia’s Rustavi Prison Number Five, with the broadcaster reporting that she only had access to a hole in the ground for a toilet, one hour of fresh air each day and communal showers twice a week.
Lyanne told the BBC that during Culley’s stint in the prison she toasted bread over a candle flame and boiled pasta in a kettle.
But now she has been moved to a different prison and her conditions appear to have improved, she said.
The Mirror recently disclosed how Mr Salakaia is still striving to secure her release from prison before she gives birth by seeking a pardon from Georgia’s prime minister Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former professional footballer who played for Man City. If approved, it would result in her immediate departure from Georgia.
Should a presidential pardon attempt prove unsuccessful, Georgian sources indicate that Bella will be moved from prison to a local hospital for the birth, before being permitted to care for her child whilst incarcerated. It’s anticipated she would be provided with a designated special room in custody designed to meet both her and her baby’s requirements.
During a prior hearing last week, Mr Salakaia had sought his client’s release on bail before today’s sentencing proceedings. However, Judge Giorgi Gelashvili rejected the application, informing him there were no legal basis to alter her circumstances.
At the earlier hearing, Mr Salakaia argued: “She pleaded guilty, fully co-operated with the investigation and the plea bargain has just been reached. So we’d like to ask the judge to release her on bail, given her advanced pregnancy.”
Throughout the same proceedings, Bella was overheard questioning her solicitor: “Will I be able to take the baby with me if I go back to jail?”. His response was: “Nobody is going to take the baby away from you”.
It remains unclear whether she will complete her entire sentence at the women’s prison in Tbilisi, where she’s presently detained, or if she might be released to house arrest in Georgia or extradited to the UK to serve her time. Bella, a student nurse hailing from Billingham, Teesside, mysteriously disappeared in Pattaya, Thailand, in May, only to resurface in Georgia, formerly part of the USSR until 1991.
She was arrested after authorities discovered 11kg of cannabis and over 400g of hashish, a highly concentrated form of cannabis, in her luggage.
Bella claimsthat she was coerced into smuggling the drugs by gangsters who marked her with an iron, showed her a video of a man being beheaded, and threatened to decapitate her family if she didn’t comply.
During a previous hearing in July, she insisted: “I didn’t want to do this. I was forced by torture… All I wanted to do was to travel.”
Lyanne told the BBC the family is doing everything it can to get Bella home “where she should be”.
She said her daughter’s full story “will come in time”, adding: “Until then we are just a family doing everything we can for my daughter and grandson.”
