British teenager Bella Culley,who was held in Georgia for months accused of drugs trafficking,has said she is ‘happy and relieved’ after being released from prison.
Culley,from Billingham in Teesside,County Durham,had faced a potential 20 years behind bars,but after being found guilty today,she has been released after a last minute change to the terms of a plea bargain.
Speaking tearfully to media,she said she had not expected the decision to let her travel home,having been jailed since May 10.
Wearing a cream blazer,her baby bump was clearly visible as she walked free,holding hands with her mother Lyanne Kennedy.
The 19-year-old,who is heavily pregnant,was detained at Tbilisi International Airport after she was found to be carrying 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish in her luggage.
Bella May Culley will now be allowed to travel home to the UKShe claimed she was tortured until she agreed to smuggle drugs out of Thailand,saying she was burned with a hot iron and shown a beheading video by a Thai gang.Last week,she pleaded guilty,asking the judge if she could take her baby with her when she goes to prison.Prosecutor Vakhtang Tsalughelashvili said Culley will be freed today.
Bella Culley walks towards journalists following a hearing of the city court that released her from custody in Tbilisi today (Picture: Reuters)Georgian prosecutors had been considering a two-year sentence,but ‘decided to consider the time she has already served’,Tsalughelashvili said.She was sentenced to five months and 25 days in prison,the total time she had already spent in custody.Last month,her mum,Lyanne Kennedy,44,and father,Niel Culley,49,paid more than £137,000 as part of the plea bargain in hopes of reducing their daughter’s sentence.
Bella May Culley seen in court in Tbilisi after she was detained at at the city’s airport (Picture: imedinews /east2west news)Culley and her mother both cried as the verdict was read out.She could have initially faced a penalty of up to 15 years,or life imprisonment.Her lawyer,Malkhaz Salakaia,said Culley would be given her passport and would be free to leave the country today.
Lyanne Kennedy,mother of British teenager Bella Culley,after a hearing in Tbilisi,Georgia on October 28 (Picture: Reuters)Salakhaia has told reporters that she showed visible physical signs of torture upon her arrival in Georgia.Cully’s mother said she thought she would only see her daughter after the birth of her grandson.‘It was totally unexpected,’ she said,suggesting that her grandson should be named after the family’s laywer.In another interview,she told the BBC the family is doing everything it can to get her 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.’
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