Brit mum arrested in Mauritius with son, 6, is being held in hellhole prison
A British mum accused of trying to smuggle cannabis into Mauritius inside her six-year-old son's suitcase is being held there in a notorious hellhole prison, it is reported.
It is said Natashia Artug faces waiting more than a year on remand in the womens' section of Beau Bassin Central Prison just outside the island capital Port Louis. This period is understood to be before Artug, 35, 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".
Artug, who is a mother of two, 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, she had been coerced into travelling to the island nation by people who threatened her and her family, said London-based non-profit Justice Abroad, who is representing the woman.
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 womens' 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."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
8 minutes ago
- Spectator
The ballad of broken Britain
In my corner of Bristol, alongside drug dealers, shoplifters and street drinkers, we now have our very own pyromaniac. They started small – an abandoned office chair, a clothing bank and an old telephone box – before moving on to bigger things. Half a dozen cars have been torched over the past few months, including two on my road, and, most recently, a derelict pub. The other Saturday, hearing a commotion outside, my wife jumped out of bed and flung open the curtains. The scene that greeted us was apocalyptic. In daylight, on a narrow suburban street, the arsonist had set fire to three motorbikes parked in a row, which in turn had set alight a car and a hedge. It was pandemonium. People were wandering around in their nightclothes, some barefoot, having been advised by the police to leave their homes. The bikes and car were engulfed in flames, and thick clouds of black smoke billowed over the houses. The fire brigade arrived quickly and soon had things under control, but the resulting carnage was like West Belfast circa the 1970s after a mortar attack. Setting vehicles alight is a serious criminal offence, not to mention incredibly dangerous, yet the police response was sluggish. For weeks, charred motorbike frames and the blackened shells of cars sat on melted tarmac. Wandering the area felt like disaster tourism. Eventually, after mounting complaints, a meeting was called with councillors and police in attendance. However, what was meant to be a discussion about the fires quickly turned into a free-for-all on rising crime. It was a comically British affair – lots of blustering and cries of: 'Do speak up, we can't hear you at the back!' There also seemed to be a few budding local sleuths who'd uncovered some quite extraordinary goings-on that the police were unaware of. Notwithstanding our resident Miss Marples, if we'd gone looking for reassurance, we didn't get any. Although we were told we could report incidents online and expect a response within 72 hours. Amazing. You'd hope the issue would be resolved by then. Still, there were tea and biscuits – so that was all right. In effect, the mostly middle-class crowd came away with the impression that it was down to them to manage the situation: 'You can apply for a council grant to install CCTV at your house, or buy one of those camera doorbell thingies.' The police, it seems, don't have the time or resources. One thing we were promised was increased patrols, but our local 'cop shop' is only open a few hours a week, and I don't think I've seen a policeman on foot in the 20-odd years I've been here. You do see the occasional PCSO, but they engender about as much confidence as a Boy Scout left in charge of an anti-aircraft battery. Thankfully, I recently escaped to Menorca for a week. There's very little crime, no graffiti, no litter, and the sea – a major draw – is crystal clear. The overall impression is of a laid-back, prosperous, well-run place that the inhabitants are proud of. Coming back to the UK was a kick in the Balearics due to the stark contrast. It felt like returning home to find the front door bashed in, the house ransacked and someone cooking crystal meth on the stove. Within hours, we'd seen drug deals, masked youths speeding about on electric motorbikes and drunks stumbling in the road. The usual dope smoke, graffiti tagging and filthy streets completed the picture. If we lived in a more affluent part of Bristol, or some rural idyll, perhaps the return wouldn't have hit quite so hard. But I still wouldn't have been able to escape the headlines: water company bosses pocketing millions while pumping effluent into rivers and seas; polls suggesting almost half of the public think Britain is becoming lawless; a justice system in crisis; dire public finances; a government desperate to avoid another summer of rioting. The sense – to borrow one of the Prime Minister's favourite phrases – is of a country in managed decline. Except the decline isn't being managed very well. Yes, Menorca is small and sparsely populated – easier to keep pristine. And yes, coming home from holiday is always a downer. However, the overwhelming impression was of returning to a country that had lost its way. A 16-year-old boy was recently arrested in connection with the pub fire. Dozens of cars have since had their tyres slashed, and someone took a machete to a row of saplings – so, irrespective of whether or not he's the arsonist, we're not out of the woods yet. Although, thanks to the idiot with the machete, there won't now be a wood – or even a copse. In Richard II, John of Gaunt laments: 'That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.' Hasn't it just? And, as Abraham Lincoln observed: 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' So, while tea and biscuits may long have been a social lubricant in Britain, there are times when cohesion is so frayed, we need more than that – and I'm afraid this is one of them. To be honest, though, you'd probably get bored with Menorca after a while. All that sand – it's a bastard to get out of your shoes.
The Guardian
8 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘The matter is in his hands alone': president of Sierra Leone urged to ban FGM as court rules it tantamount to torture
As Kadijatu Balaima Allieu walked to a neighbour's house in her village in Sierra Leone, she had no idea that what was about to happen would alter the course of her life for ever. It was a beautiful September morning in 2016 and Allieu, 28 at the time, had gone to resolve a dispute she had with another woman, who belonged to the Bondo society, an influential and secretive group of women. Shortly after she arrived, she was forced into a room and the door locked. Her hands were tied. She was beaten, blindfolded and gagged. Then a woman sat on her chest while others forced her legs apart. She was forcibly subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), the partial or total removal by cutting of the female genitalia. 'There was nothing left of me [to fight],' says Allieu. 'Out of 100% energy, I was left with something like 1%. So they carried on with their operation.' Nine years later, Allieu's experience has led to a ruling against Sierra Leone by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) court of justice, which described FGM as 'one of the worst forms of violence against women' which 'meets the threshold for torture'. The case, filed by Forum Against Harmful Practices (FAHP), We Are Purposeful, and Allieu, held the government liable for human rights violations due to its failure to criminalise FGM. The court ordered Sierra Leone 'to enact and implement legislation criminalising female genital mutilation and to take appropriate measures toprohibit its occurrence and protect victims'. Though the UN passed a resolution to ban FGM in 2012, it is still practised in about 30 countries. In Sierra Leone, a national survey in 2019 found that 83% of women had undergone FGM, with 71% of them subjected to the practice before the age of 15. There is no law explicitly criminalising the procedure, part of a traditional initiation ritual that marks a girl's entry into womanhood, carried out by senior members of Bondo societies. Every year, women and children are left with health complications, and some die, as a result of such rituals. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the removal of part or all of the external genitalia for nonmedical reasons, as defined by the World Health Organization. There are different types of cutting: removal of the clitoris and/or its hood; removing the clitoris and the inner fold of the vulva (labia minora); and the narrowing of the vaginal opening by cutting and repositioning the labia minora through stitching. Also known as infibulation, this has the worst health consequences. The fourth type of cutting includes other forms of injury to the genitalia such as incising, scraping or cauterising. Since traditional practitioners use razor blades or knives, with no anaesthesia, girls experience excruciating pain and are at risk of severe bleeding and infections which can lead to sepsis. Some do not survive. For the girls, who are often married off soon after genital cutting, sex is traumatic and painful, and enjoying sex will always be difficult unless they have surgical reconstruction. In pregnancy, delivery is often risky due to obstructed and prolonged labour. Women are at risk of developing obstetric fistula (an abnormal opening between a woman's genital tract and her urinary tract or rectum) which can cause incontinence – leading to shame, stigma and rejection from their partners. When members of the Bondo society had finished mutilating Allieu, she was dragged to another room and left in a pool of blood for three days, until police found her and took her to hospital. She had three operations to fix some of the damage that had been inflicted. After the third operation, Allieu remembers the doctor telling her 'he had never seen this level of wickedness'. Even so, a crowd, including Bondo society members, marched on the hospital, calling for Allieu to be handed over. The woman who had cut her was very influential and was angry that Allieu had escaped, with the help of the police. Unable to walk, Allieu was dragged by staff to the basement to hide. 'I felt like this was the end of the road,' says Allieu. 'I was in so much pain, I was tired and had nothing left.' Police and soldiers were called to protect the hospital and the crowd dispersed, but remaining in the hospital was impossible. One of Allieu's neighbours worked for the UN and offered to drive her to the border with Liberia so she could leave the country. She made it to the other side and after 14 days arrived at a friend's house. Over the next five years, Allieu was helped by various people and organisations. She also met someone who offered to help after hearing her story, and paid for her to go abroad for surgery on her injuries. After her trauma had subsided and she found out there had been a change of government, Allieu's thoughts turned to her family, especially her son who was 10 when she left. She decided to return to Sierra Leone. 'People saw me, said I was dead and came to feel me to check I was alive,' she says. 'When I saw my son and my family, it was good, I was happy.' Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion When word spread she was back, an activist got in touch and introduced her to Yasmin Jusu-sheriff, a human rights lawyer and former vice-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, who was instrumental, among others, in bringing the case to Ecowas. The ruling on 8 July comes at a critical time in the fight against FGM in Sierra Leone. A few weeks before, on 21 June, the president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, became chair of Ecowas, marking a historic moment as the first Sierra Leonean head of state to hold the position. He has yet to acknowledge the ruling publicly. Meanwhile, celebrations at the passing of the Child Rights Act 2025 in Sierra Leone in early July were tempered when parliament issued a press release on 7 July stating that the act, which prohibits all forms of violence against children, including physical and mental abuse, 'does not contain any provision imposing a fine, penalty, or punishment specifically addressing FGM'. The act is awaiting presidential assent. But as there is no mention of banning FGM, Josephine Kamara, advocacy and communications manager at Purposeful, says: 'If we can't name a violent action for what it is, and boldly call it out, we cannot begin to end it.' 'Politically and internationally, the situation just does not look good,' says Jusu-sheriff. 'Since the president is chairman of Ecowas, and in light of the Ecowas decision, let him send the act back to parliament and let them rethink it.' She adds: 'The matter is in his hands, and his hands alone. He holds the sword of Damocles over himself. This is the thing that will determine whether he will go down as the greatest, most human rights-loving president of all time, or not.' Allieu, who is bringing a separate case in Sierra Leone against the woman who mutilated her, is due to be awarded $30,000 (£22,000) in compensation as part of the Ecowas ruling. She says she can't find work because of the public stigma surrounding her case, but wants to use the money to further her education and become an activist. 'I really want the government to look into this, especially the sitting president with his power as head of state,' she says. 'I want him to honour the ruling of the Ecowas court and [make it so] the Child Rights Act can help eradicate FGM.'
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Financial Ombudsman Service boss paid £230,000 after ousting
The ousted head of the Financial Ombudsman Service received a pay-off of almost £230,000, it has been disclosed in the annual report. Abby Thomas, who left abruptly on 6 February, was paid £229,869 in severance payments on top of her normal salary. The payoff included £100,000 for loss of office, £107,692 in lieu of notice and £22,177 for a period of gardening leave that began on the day she left, the FOS said. MPs on the Treasury select committee have hit out at the manner of her departure and criticised the FOS chairwoman Baroness Manzoor for refusing to answer questions on why Thomas left and whether she was forced out. The FOS, which rules on complaints by consumers about financial services firms and can set compensation orders, is under pressure to reform. Rachel Reeves has pledged to curb its powers so it no longer acts like a regulator after complaints from the industry that it has increased the cost of 'mass redress events'. It has been dealing with a significant rise in claims, mainly related to car finance loans, but also because of concerns about other consumer loans and more people complaining about banks' handling of frauds. Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Treasury committee, said this month: 'The handling of this situation by the senior leadership has been deeply disappointing.' Thomas, a former Virgin Media executive, served for less than three years. She has been replaced by James Dipple-Johnstone as chief ombudsman and Jenny Simmonds as interim chief executive. Manzoor is due to retire on August 1. The FOS received 450,000 new inquiries in the year to March, up from 330,000. The motor finance industry is braced for a judgment from the Supreme Court this Friday that could determine the scale of compensation payments for failing to disclose commissions paid to dealers.
