A Turkish court on Tuesday jailed two young French women for 10 years for transporting nearly 25 kilos of cannabis from Thailand. The two nationals had been held for 10 months in Silivri prison, Turkey's largest detention facility, west of Istanbul.
The pair were arrested on 28 February during a stopover at Istanbul Airport while carrying two suitcases containing about 12 kilos of drugs each.
The two friends from the Paris region, named as Ibtissem B., 22, and Mariam N., 23, were also each ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 Turkish lira – around 1,990 euros.
The judge sentenced them on the charge of "drug transport rather than drug trafficking, which would have exposed them to a heavier sentence," Mariam's lawyer Umut Alikasifoglu said.
Transfer to France?
"The objective now is to obtain their transfer to a prison in France," he added.
Under Turkish law, cannabis trafficking is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while cocaine trafficking carries a minimum sentence of 30 years, the lawyers said.
"Let us hope that the French and Turkish authorities quickly reach an agreement on their transfer," Ibtissem's French lawyer Carole-Olivia Montenot said.
The two women had been held for 10 months in Silivri prison, Turkey's largest detention facility, west of Istanbul.
They have always claimed that they had no knowledge of what they were carrying.
'Childhood friend'
During the first hearing of their trial in September, they claimed to have been manipulated by one of their friends, Taeric O., and an accomplice of his, who allegedly gave them two suitcases in Bangkok to deliver to Taeric O.'s mother in Belgium.
According to Ibtissem's aunt, Taeric O., "a childhood friend", is in prison in Amiens (northern France), which the two women were unaware of.
"They are two really naive girls, two kids who got taken in," she told French news agency AFP.
Taeric O. promised them a luxurious stay in Bangkok, with plane tickets, hotel and all expenses paid, and was supposed to join them – which he never did.
Appearing before the judge on Tuesday, the young women, assisted by an interpreter, expressed their "regret for not checking" the contents of the suitcases and apologised.
"If we had known there was marijuana inside, we would never have taken the suitcases. We weren't going to risk going to prison. I didn't even check if there was a padlock, I trusted my friend Taeric," Ibtissem said in her defence at the first hearing.
(with AFP)
