British teenager Bella May Culley, imprisoned in Georgia amid allegations of drug smuggling, has voiced concerns over the lack of medical attention whilst being pregnant.
Her attorney, Mariam Kublashvili, relayed her plight to the media: “She is pregnant and needs medical care which she complained she wasn’t getting – there were no tests or checks or medical examinations done, she told me. She said she asked for a doctor, but the doctor wasn’t speaking English and they couldn’t understand each other.”
Culley, 18 and hailing from Billingham, County Durham, reportedly finds herself cooped up with two others in the infamous Women’s Penitentiary Number Five, close to Russia’s border.
She reached out to Kublashvili with requests reflecting clear signs of pregnancy cravings: a longing for fresh fruit and tuna. But within the prison’s walls, such specific hunger pangs struggle to be satisfied.
Kublashvili disclosed to the Daily Mail: “She asked me for tuna fish which I thought was odd and might have been something to do with pregnancy cravings – but fish cannot be sent in. She told me no tests, checks or medical examinations have been done. She said she asked for a doctor, but the doctor wasn’t speaking English and they couldn’t understand each other,” reports the Mirror.
The prosecutor has requested 55 days to collect evidence against Culley, who completed a college programme in the UK with aspirations of becoming a nurse – dreams now at risk due to her legal entanglements in Georgia. She faces accusations of smuggling copious amounts of cannabis and hashish into the country after a Southeast Asia tour.
Yet there are rumblings of unease within the British legal community over the police operation that led to her arrest. Retired police general Jamal Janashia shared his apprehensions with the Mirror: “I would like to express my worry that the operation [to arrest Bella] was stopped too early before it could reach its logical conclusion before we could find out who she was in contact with, who she was going to, and so on. Maybe it’s the first attempt.
“It’s a test run from Thailand to check whether it [the route] would work but we won’t know because it was stopped. Had the operation been done properly, we would have found out what the final destination was. I have suspicion that the final destination is likely to be Europe rather than Georgia.”
Images circulating depict the stark confines of Women’s Penitentiary Number Five in Georgia, alleged to be dilapidated. Reportage has highlighted the overcrowded and unhygienic state of the jail.
It’s understood that Culley’s family lost touch with her during her trip to Thailand, which started around 3 May. Her backpacking adventure began in the Philippines shortly after Easter.
However, the young woman was arrested last week. The case is ongoing.
