2 days ago
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BELLA Culley’s dramatic release from a Georgian prison has reignited hopes for another young Brit locked up abroad.
Former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee, 21, is still trapped in a Sri Lankan jail under grim conditions.
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Charlotte’s lawyer, Sampath Perera, said the news of Bella’s return to the UK could finally shine a light on his client’s plight.
He told The Sun: “Charlotte will be hopeful and the news of Bella’s case can put her case in the global spotlight.
“It is not like she has not been given a bail, there is a condition and that is a complicated situation.”
Charlotte, from Surrey, was arrested at Colombo Airport in May after authorities allegedly found 46kg of the potent synthetic drug kush in her luggage.
Read more on Charlotte May Lee
The stash, reportedly worth £1.2 million, had been packed in large, vacuum-sealed bags.
She insists she had “no idea” drugs were hidden inside and claims they were planted during her trip from Bangkok, Thailand.
The 21-year-old, who who has not yet been formally charged, faces up to 25 years in jail if convicted.
She told the BBC from her cell in Negombo that she shares a cramped room with five other women, sleeping on a thin mattress on the concrete floor.
“This heat and just sitting on a concrete floor all of the time,” she said.
“I can’t compare it to anything.”
Mr Perera said Charlotte’s case has been stuck in limbo since September, when a judge granted her conditional bail.
But those conditions – including finding a high-level embassy official willing to act as surety – have proved almost impossible to meet.
He explained: “What happened was we have already done the application in the high court but the judge gave us some kind of a condition which is a bit difficult to fulfil because she is a foreigner.”
“Nobody would volunteer and come and be a bailee for a person whom they don’t know. That is the difficulty we are having.”
He added that his client’s family in the UK cannot act as guarantors under Sri Lankan law.
Mr Perera said his team is still searching for four volunteers to stand as sureties.
“If somebody come forward easily we can go to the high court and put a motion,” he said, adding that other unspecified financial conditions could also apply.
“She is cooperating… talking to her friends in Australia and asking them whether they can be volunteers.”
Charlotte remains “frustrated but hopeful”, according to her lawyer.
“She heard the good news on September 9 that she has been given some conditions to grant bail… so she must be looking forward to coming out and having a good time with her friends,” he said.
Charlotte’s continued detention comes after Bella Culley, 19, walked free from a Georgian jail and landed at Luton Airport after a five-month ordeal.
Pregnant Bella, from Billingham, was arrested in May after allegedly smuggling 31lb of cannabis from Thailand.
She told the court she had been forced into trafficking by a violent gang who branded her and threatened her life.
Her family reportedly paid £140,000 to secure her release, with prosecutors agreeing to free her on compassionate grounds.
Bella is now back in the UK, expecting her baby before Christmas.
Her case has drawn international attention to the growing number of young British travellers allegedly being exploited by drug gangs across Asia.
Mr Perera believes that spotlight could now help Charlotte.
“There are lots of circumstances and it is not easy,” he said.
“This is getting complicated for all foreigners who are remanded in criminal activity in this country.”
But the lawyer is determined to not give up.
“We are trying our level best to do the best,” he said.
“There are legal paths we have to work on… we are fighting back.”
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