Briton, 22- in Indian Jail for smuggling hashish after carrying Israeli friend's case at airport

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

 

Dream trip that turned into an Indian jail nightmare

Briton, 22, held for smuggling hashish after carrying friend's case at airport

    * Luke Harding in New Delhi
    * The Guardian, Wednesday 8 January 2003 02.28 GMT   

She should, by now, have been relaxing on a beach in Australia. But last night Daisy Angus, a 22-year-old British backpacker, was preparing for another night in a squalid Indian cell after her round-the-world trip turned into a nightmare.

Ms Angus, from Bournemouth, Dorset, was arrested in Bombay six weeks ago after agreeing to carry a suitcase belonging to an Israeli friend.

As she went though customs, Indian officials, to her horror, discovered 10kg (22lb) of hashish hidden in a secret compartment. They immediately arrested Ms Angus, who is now locked up in central Bombay's grim neo-gothic Arthur Road prison. She is likely to be charged with drug smuggling. If convicted, she faces the prospect of 10 years in an Indian jail.

Last night Stephen Jakobi, director of Fair Trials Abroad, said all the indications pointed to Ms Angus's innocence - and described the circumstances in which she was caught as "dubious".

"She comes from a well-heeled family," he said. "She doesn't need the money."

Her co-accused, Israeli businessman    Yoran Kadesh, 37,    is in the same prison. Indian officials captured him as he attempted to run away from the airport.

Ms Angus's father John - who is in Bombay trying to negotiate her release - said she was utterly distraught. She had contracted malaria within a week of her detention in late November, and was now very sick, and sharing a small, filthy cell with 43 other women inmates.

"Whenever I see her in prison she just says: 'Daddy daddy daddy. You can't leave me here'," he said last night. "This has absolutely destroyed us. It hasn't just affected me but our three other kids and grandchildren. Daisy is not capable of this. The only thing she has ever wanted to do is help people. She has been set up."

Ms Angus is able to meet her father once a day - from behind thick mesh in a packed, noisy and chaotic interview room. In a note passed out yesterday by her guards, she said only: "I'm very happy with the way I'm being treated."

The backpacker, a trainee fitness instructor, spent her early childhood in India when her parents worked for five years as volunteers in Mother Teresa's home for the destitute in Calcutta. She has returned to India with her family several times - most recently three months ago, when she joined her father and mother, Nadine, in the northern hill station of Dharamsala.

"We celebrated my 50th birthday there," Mr Angus said. "A few days later we had a call from the airport saying: 'Your daughter has been arrested'."

Ms Angus met Mr Kadesh on an earlier trip. She agreed to fly to Amsterdam with him after he told her it was the only way he could pay back money he had borrowed from her.

"Her rucksack broke," Mrs Angus said. "He gave her a suitcase and asked her to put her clothes inside. She put them in and carried on doing her make-up.

"He took the suitcase downstairs and a porter took it to the airport. She never realised how heavy the case was. When she arrived at the x-ray the customs official grew suspicious. He said: 'Is that your suitcase?' She said: 'Yes'."

Sinister

Mrs Angus, who has returned to Bournemouth from India, has written to the Indian high commission in London and to her local MP, urging them to intervene. Under Indian law Ms Angus is unlikely to be charged for another month - and then faces at least a year in jail before her case reaches trial.

Her ordeal focuses attention on India's flourishing drug trade - and on the remote Kullu valley in north India, where Mr Kadesh apparently ran a shop with his 41-year-old brother.

The beautiful valley is known for its cheap and plentiful supply of hashish - and attracts thousands of backpackers each year. It also has a sinister side. Some 15 western tourists have disappeared there without trace. Indian police have planted drugs on foreigners and demanded large bribes for their release. A powerful Israeli mafia allegedly controls much of the trade.

Last month a British charity worker, Ian Stillman, was released from prison early after being convicted in similar circumstances. Mr Stillman was arrested in Manali, Kullu, after police officers discovered 20kg of cannabis in the boot of his taxi. The charity worker always protested his innocence and was freed after 2 years in prison following the intervention of Tony Blair.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jan/0 ... NETTXT3487

[Anonymous]

That is funny, serves her right for having jewish friends.