Brit mum who allegedly smuggled cannabis into Mauritius in son's suitcase held in hellhole prison
A British mum is being held in a notorious hellhole prison accused of attempting to smuggle cannabis into Mauritius inside her six-year-old son's suitcase, it is reported.
It is said Natashia Artug faces waiting more than a year on remand in the women's' section of Beau Bassin Central Prison just outside the island capital Port Louis. This period is understood to be before the 35-year-old mother of two is even brought to trial.
The jail, home to 135 women inmates, has been described as being filthy with prisoners often having to spend hours outside "under the scorching sun", reports the Mirror.
Artug was arrested with six other Britons and her Romanian boyfriend after they allegedly tried to smuggle 161kg of cannabis worth £1.6million into Mauritius.
However, her representatives from London-based non-profit Justice Abroad claim she had been coerced into travelling to the island nation by people who threatened her and her family.
After the group's British Airways flight from Gatwick touched down at the island's Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport last month, it is said cannabis weighing 14kg was found wrapped in cellophane packages and stuffed inside Artug's six-year-old son's wheelie case.
And so authorities in Mauritius are understood to therefore be treating Artug's case with utmost seriousness. The mum, though, is being held alongside four other British women, all arrested with her and all from Cambridgeshire.
The defendant was reportedly initially held under guard with her son in the headquarters of the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit in Mauritius so they could be together. However, she is believed to have been transferred to the Beau Bassin Central Prison after her son's father reportedly flew over to collect him and took him back to the UK. Artug, from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, is yet to comment publicly about her experience.
Prison conditions in Mauritius were slammed in a 2014 report, which said they "did not always meet international standards" and drug abuse had been reported in jails across the island. More than half of the women at Beau Bassin Central Prison are believed to be foreign with the majority serving sentences or on remand for drug offences.
Yet the Human Rights report by the US State Department highlighted a "lack of hygiene, sanitation, and basic medical care" as "problems" at the clink. In a further comment on the jail, it added: "Given the lack of administrative remedies, inmates' relatives sometimes turned to private radio stations to denounce hygiene conditions or other problems." The document, though, did not specify whether the issues related to the women's' section of the jail or the far larger mens' section.
It described, however, record-keeping in prisons on the island as "adequate" with inmates able to have visitors, submit complaints and follow religious observance.
In relation to the case, a Foreign Office spokesman has said: "We are supporting a British national detained in Mauritius and are in contact with the local authorities."
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