TBILISI, Georgia — A 19-year-old British woman accused of drug smuggling has been transferred from a Georgian prison to a mother and baby unit after enduring months in grim conditions.
Bella Culley, who is 35 weeks pregnant, was arrested in May at Tbilisi International Airport for allegedly carrying 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish in her luggage. She has been held for five months at Rustavi Prison Number Five, where her mother says she was forced to boil pasta in a kettle and toast bread over a candle.
Inside the former Soviet jail, Culley reportedly had to use a hole in the ground as a toilet and was allowed only limited access to fresh air and showers.
Her mother, Lyanne Kennedy, said Culley’s conditions have improved significantly since her transfer earlier this month.
“She now gets two hours out for walking, she can use the communal kitchen, has a shower in her room and a proper toilet,” Kennedy told the BBC. “They all cook for each other. Bella has been making eggy bread, cheese toasties, and salt and pepper chicken.”
Kennedy confirmed that the family recently paid £137,000 (about 500,000 lari) as part of a plea bargain with Georgian prosecutors, which could reduce her sentence.
Culley claims she was forced to smuggle the drugs by a gang that threatened her family. She had been traveling in Southeast Asia and was reported missing in Thailand before her arrest.
At her July hearing, she pleaded not guilty, insisting she was “a clean person” and that she had been tortured into carrying the drugs.
Culley is expected to give birth before Christmas while awaiting sentencing. Another court hearing is scheduled for Monday.
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