Brit mum caught ‘smuggling hashish’ held in jail from hell | World | News | EUROtoday

A British mom who has been charged with trying to smuggle hashish into Mauritius, allegedly hiding it in her six-year-old son’s baggage, is reportedly being detained within the island vacation spot’s notorious jail hellhole.

Natashia Artug is alleged to face greater than a yr on remand within the ladies’s wing of Beau Bassin Central Prison, located simply outdoors the capital Port Louis. This prolonged wait is known to precede any court docket trial for the 35-year-old.

The facility, housing 135 feminine prisoners, has been branded as squalid, with inmates ceaselessly pressured to endure hours “under the scorching sun” outside. Artug joins a rising checklist of British ladies held overseas after changing into ensnared in alleged drug smuggling.

The mother-of-two was detained alongside six different Britons and her Romanian companion after allegedly trying to move 161kg of hashish valued at £1.6million into Mauritius. However, London-based charity Justice Abroad, which is representing her, claims Artug was coerced into making the journey by people who threatened each her and her household.

Following the group’s British Airways flight from Gatwick touchdown at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport final month, authorities reportedly found 14kg of hashish wrapped in cellophane and hid inside Artug’s younger son’s wheeled suitcase.

Consequently, Mauritian officers are understood to be treating Artug’s case with the very best degree of seriousness. The mom is presently held with 4 different British ladies, all from Cambridgeshire and arrested in the identical operation, the Mirror stories.

The accused was initially detained alongside her son on the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit headquarters in Mauritius, permitting them to stay collectively beneath supervision.

Nevertheless, she is known to have been moved to Beau Bassin Central Prison following the arrival of her son’s father, who reportedly travelled from Britain to gather the kid and return him to the UK.

Artug, who hails from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, has but to make any public assertion relating to her ordeal.

A damning 2014 evaluation of Mauritian jail amenities revealed they “did not always meet international standards”, with drug misuse documented throughout detention centres all through the island.

Over half the feminine inmates at Beau Bassin Central Prison are regarded as foreigners, with most both serving time or awaiting trial for narcotics-related expenses.

The US State Department’s Human Rights evaluation recognized a “lack of hygiene, sanitation, and basic medical care” as vital “problems” inside the facility.

Commenting additional on the establishment, the report famous: “Given the lack of administrative remedies, inmates’ relatives sometimes turned to private radio stations to denounce hygiene conditions or other problems.”

The documentation didn’t make clear whether or not these considerations utilized particularly to the ladies’s wing or the significantly bigger males’s part.

However, it described jail record-keeping throughout the island as “adequate”, with prisoners permitted visits, the suitable to lodge complaints and alternatives for non secular apply.

In response to the scenario, a Foreign Office spokesman acknowledged: “We are supporting a British national detained in Mauritius and are in contact with the local authorities.”