TEENAGE drug mule suspect Bella Culley’s family face a huge £100,000 fine to buy her freedom from a grim ex-Soviet jail, it was revealed today.
The 19-year-old tripper was held with £200,000 worth of drugs in Georgia on a flight from Thailand in May and was facing 20 years behind bars.
East2WestBella faces years in a grim ex-Soviet jail if her freedom isn’t bought[/caption]
The Brit teen was arrested being found with a huge stash of drugs on the way back from Thailand
She could be held in the brutal Prison No.5 if she ends up behind bars
But her lawyer is close to clinching a deal which will enable her to walk free – provided her family stumps up a huge payout.
Bella – who fell pregnant on the disastrous backpacking trip – claims she was forced into trafficking by a Thai gang which branded her with an iron and showed her beheading videos.
Her lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia has declined to provide the figure being discussed and told The Sun: “Negotiations are close to completion”.
But sources in Georgia estimate that prosecutors in the eastern European nation’s city court in capital Tbilisi are demanding around £100,000.
The judge in the case has indicated that Bella could be freed as soon as a deal is done but progress has been delayed as her family struggles to pull together the huge sum.
Anna Putkaradze, a Georgian lawyer specializing in high-profile cases involving foreigners told The Sun: “If the prosecution is calculating the fine based on the estimated street value of the drugs in Britain, rather than in Georgia.
“ I would estimate it at around £100,000.
“The law does not literally say ‘exactly half,’ but according to the Customs Code and the practice of the Revenue Service, when contraband goods are discovered, the fine is usually set at roughly 50%.
“Of course in this case there are many nuances in play — including the severity of the offense, which under the law carries about 15 years’ imprisonment, up to life.
“Even when mitigating circumstances exist – such as cooperation with investigators, pregnancy, no prior convictions, being a first-time offender, and no resulting harm -the very nature of the offense imposes a binding constraint on the state.
“It leaves little room for manoeuvre making it unlikely that the penalty would be merely symbolic (for example, reduced to a fifth of the amount).
“Since the defendant is a British citizen and the family’s economic income is in pounds sterling, it would be logical for the fine to be calculated based on their sterling income.
“The final destination of the drugs also plays a crucial part. Was it Georgia or Britain?
“This is an especially grave category of crime so setting the fine at approximately half the estimated value could be considered an adequate punishment.”
Judge Giorgi Gelashvili denied the British teenager’s plea for bail with a £13,752 surety yesterday but said she would be returned to court the moment a plea deal was agreed.
And the agreement could lead to her walking free immediately – provided her family stumps up a substantial sum to enable her to raise her child away from the grim Georgian jail.
SuppliedBella Culley seen in court at the beginning of July as her devastated family watched on[/caption]
Bella’s lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia told The Sun: “Negotiations are close to completion.
“The higher the fine will be, the less time she will serve including the possibility of a full release.
“Thats what we are negotiating at the moment. At this moment Bella’s family isn’t ready to pay the amount requested.
“It all depends on Bella’s parents. The prosecution is willing to let her go on the same day the demanded amount is paid.
“We are debating and negotiating on that aspect and its likely that this compromise will be reached before the 9th of October”
Bella’s mum Lyanne Kennedy, 44, sobbed “Bella, I will see you in the morning” as the alleged mule – wearing a dark t-shirt and showing her baby bump – left court yesterday (Tues).
A Georgian prosecutor told The Sun that they have evidence the Brit ‘acted with prior intent’
Bella’s mum Lyanne Kennedy (centre) leaving court in Tbilisi on Thursday
She dutifully turned up for a visit early today with Bella’s grandfather William Culley.
And the pair appeared distressed while in animated conversation as they exited the fortified gates of No 5 Women’s Penitentiary in near Tbilisi.
Bella’s anguished family from Billingham, Teesside now face having to raise thousands to end her jail hell while sums involved secret.
Ms Kennedy – who lives in social housing – has split from Bella’s dad Niel (ckd), 49, who works abroad as an oil rig technician.
The tearful mum said outside court on Tuesday: “It’s a lot of money for us.
“They offered us a layered approach: ‘ This and this much’ to let her go immediately and then another offer where she serves some time.
“I don’t know what to do”.
East2WestBella was found with £200,000 worth of drugs[/caption]
The teen maintains she was forced into the smuggling operation
Judge giorgi Gelashvili assured the family at the hearing: “Of course we are worried about Miss Bella’s health and her child.
“Obviously the child should be developing in a free environment.
“Taking into consideration the ongoing success in negotiations and that the family need more time to consider the prosecutions offer, we can move the date of the next trial the very moment you reach an agreement.”
Bella claims she was burned with a hot iron and shown a beheading video by a Thai gang, which forced her to fly to Tbilisi..
But Georgian prosecutor Vakhtang Tsaluqelashvili had warned the state would contest her claims after CCTV was said to contradict them.
The words “two years” were overheard during animated talks between lawyers outside court today but details of the state’s offer remained unclear.
Bella got pregnant after a fling with an unidentified British man on the first leg of her Far East trip and revealed she was expecting a baby boy at an earlier hearing..
She also claimed she had no idea where Georgia was and that she tried to raise the alarm when she boarded a flight from Bangkok.
Bella was caught at Tbilisi International Airport with 30 pounds of marijuana and hashish in her luggage on May 10.
Mr Salakaia said at an earlier hearing: “There was no malicious intent on Bella’s part – she was pressured and forced and there is irrefutable evidence of that.
“Her testimony contains even the names and last names of the individuals who forced her to transport it, she was threatened, as well as her family, including her mother who is present today.
“I want to underline that she didn’t hand in the baggage – all she knows is that there is this luggage and she will be met by certain individuals once she arrives.
“The bag wasn’t even locked, and it went through three countries and two continents, while Bella to this day is unaware whether Tbilisi is a country or a city.
“Bella didn’t commit this crime and there are no grounds to doubt her testimony.”
Bella – who has been supported at hearings by her mum Lyanne and oil rig worker dad Niel Culley and her grandad William Culley – will return to court on a date in October.
Inside the dark world of Brit ‘drug mules’
A SLEW of drug mule arrests involving Brits have emerged in the last few months.
In April and May, two Brit women were arrested abroad for alleged drug smuggling.
Bella was the first after she allegedly tried to smuggle a suitcase of weed into Georgia.
Meanwhile, former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee was also caught allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2million into Sri Lanka.
Her two suitcases were said to have been stuffed with 46kg of a synthetic cannabis strain known as kush — which is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl.
If found guilty, South Londoner Charlotte could face a 25-year sentence.
As a young mum was detained in Germany for allegedly smuggling cannabis in her bags on a flight from Thailand – in yet another shocking case.
Glamorous Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage.
It comes as a Brit couple claiming to be tourists from Thailand have been busted with more than 33kg of cannabis in their suitcases at a Spanish airport.
The pair were picked out by suspicious cops at Valencia Airport after displaying a “nervous and evasive attitude” and are now behind bars on drug trafficking charges.
Experts told The Sun how wannabe Brit Insta stars are being lured by cruel gangs into carting drugs across the world.
Then last month, a six-year-old British boy was arrested in Mauritius suspected of smuggling part of a £1.6million dope haul stuffed inside his wheelie case.
The lad was picked up by customs officials along with his mum and five other Brits as they arrived on the tropical island.
Authorities branded the use of a child in the audacious drug smuggling plot as “inhumane”.
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