DRUG “mule” Bella Culley’s silent cries for help have been revealed as she “was watched” by a drugs gang going through the airport, her lawyer has claimed.
Bella, 19, was told yesterday that her trial on drug smuggling charges has been postponed amid talks over a possible “plea bargain” deal.
Asia Pacific Press via ViralPressThai police have now released CCTV footage of the Brit going through the automated gates at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand[/caption]
On Bella’s first court appearance she announced she was pregnant
Asia Pacific Press via ViralPressPolice confirmed she used a British passport to exit Thailand[/caption]
SuppliedBella Culley seen in court at the beginning of July as her devastated family watched on[/caption]
The teenager appeared at Tbilisi City Court on Thursday after claiming she had been burned with a hot iron and shown a beheading video by a Thailand-based gang.
Bella was arrested on arrival at the airport at Georgian capital Tbilisi in May with £200,000 worth of cannabis in her hold baggage.
But she has since claimed the bag was checked in by a gang member and she never saw it before Georgian police stopped her at customs.
Bella’s attempt to escape a jail term has been complicated by the release of Thai CCTV footage said to contradict her claims that she tried to alert cops at Bangkok airport.
The next hearing was yesterday put back to July 24 while prosecutors and Bella’s Georgian lawyer Malkhaz Salakaia attempt to strike a deal.
He told The Sun how cops missed her silent cries for help.
Mr Salakaia said: “I fail to see how that’s substantial. Of course they are going to say that.
“What hasn’t been said or shown is the fact that the people who brought and handed in this baggage were still nearby and she couldn’t communicate openly.
“She tried to signal it to them, without being noticed herself, that it wasn’t her baggage but wasn’t paid any attention.”
Trainee nurse Bella, from Billingham, Teesside – who got pregnant on the Far East backpacking trip where she met British gang members – faces a life jail term.
The teenager – in a pink t-shirt showing her baby bump – was again supported in court on Thursday by her oil rig worker father Niel, 39, who urged her to “stay strong” as she fought to stay composed.
The next hearing was put back to July 24 while prosecutors and Bella’s lawyer Salakaia attempt to strike a deal.
Mr Salakaia told The Sun: “The sides have entered the phase of negotiation over the plea bargain, to see whether this could be an eventual option.
“We haven’t reached agreement yet. Our position is the release of my client and paying the fine. We ll see where we end up after negotiations”.
Bella has been held for 61 days at Tbilisi’s Number Five Women’s Penitentiary accused of importing 31lbs of cannabis and hashish.
She flew from Bangkok via Sharjah in Abu Dhabi on May 10 and her lawyer revealed she was unsure where she was when she was arrested.
A Georgian police spokesman confirmed that, if found guilty, she could face between 20 years in jail and a life term.
Bella claimed baggage containing the cannabis was carried to the airport for her and put in the plane’s hold when she boarded a flight from Bangkok in May.
UnpixsCops said cannabis was found wrapped in air-tight bags in Bella’s luggage[/caption]
FacebookThe Brit told a court she was tortured into trafficking £200,000-worth of cannabis by evil crimelords[/caption]
Prime TimeShe was caught at Tblisi International Airport with 30 pounds of marijuana and hashish in her luggage on May 10[/caption]
Her family launched a missing person hunt in Thailand after she vanished on holiday but she turned up under arrest 4,000 miles away in the European nation.
Then on her first court appearance she announced she was pregnant.
CCTV footage of Bella was released, which cops say rubbishes her claim she was coerced into transporting the £200,000 drug stash.
Police Major General Cherngron Rimphadee said a few weeks ago: “This matter is not complicated.
“Police have reviewed CCTV footage and confirmed that she used a British passport to exit through the automatic passport control channel.
“As a result, she did not interact with or speak to any immigration officers and simply exited the country.”
Thai authorities say Bella’s claims of seeking help from customs staff are “absolutely baseless”.
Surveillance shows the teen, from Billingham, Teesside, apparently passing calmly through Suvarnabhumi Airport’s automated gates without raising any red flags.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that any immigration or police officers forced or threatened the suspect to smuggle drugs out of the country,” Lt. Gen. Choengron said.
“It was a deliberate departure.”
The footage had reportedly been shared with media outlets in an attempt to debunk Bella’s courtroom testimony in Tblisi, where she claimed she “didn’t want to do this” and was allegedly forced under torture.
Bella’s lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, claimed corrupt Thai police officers were in on the trafficking ring and that when Bella turned to one for help, she realised he was part of the gang.
Cannabis was found wrapped in air-tight bags in Bella’s luggage, police said
NCJBella May Culley claims she was coerced into transporting £200k worth of cannabis[/caption]
FacebookBella has said she never touched the drugs found in her suitcase[/caption]
Salakaia alleged she and her family were threatened with beheading if she didn’t comply.
He went on to claim that “They told her: we know the addresses of your parents, we know where your 16-year-old brother is”, before showing her a video of a person being beheaded.
The court was also shown a scar on her arm which Salakaia said was inflicted before the suitcase containing the drugs – which she allegedly never touched – was given to her.
But Thai police say it’s all an attempt to wriggle out of punishment.
Officials believe the teen’s high-stakes tale is part of a strategy to secure a lighter sentence in Georgia.
The Georgian prosecution has charged her with “illegally purchasing and storing a particularly large amount of narcotics” and “illegally importing them into the country”.
Thai cops said she would now be blacklisted for entering the country “to commit a drug offence”, citing a breach of Section 12 of the Immigration Act.
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”.