Bella Culley appears in court accused of cannabis smuggling via Thailand. Bella Culley, detained without bail in a female penitentiary ex-Soviet Georgia, claims she was tortured into being a cannabis drugs carrier by unnamed British expats in Bangkok. She was arrested on May 10 on arrival at Tbilisi airport with 24 pounds of banned substances in her luggage, worth 8.5 million baht or 200,000 pounds. In pre-trial hearings her Georgian lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, said his client had been coerced by being forced to watch in Thailand a snuff video of a stranger being decapitated. He added she was warned that the gang knew the addresses of her relatives in UK. According to the lawyer, Bella still had the remote scar left by a hot iron on her arm and had not been offered any reward or enticement to transport the contraband back to the UK. Not yet 20 years old, Bella has used a battery of defences which have included her teen naivety and alleged unsuccessful attempts to inform immigration departure officers in Bangkok that the suitcase was not hers. They ignored her, it is claimed. She has also argued her baby, when born, would have to spend its early years in a prison nursery. The Daily Mail, amongst other UK press, has published hundreds of comments about the case which will formally begin in Tbilisi later this month. Many are skeptical. Bella left Bangkok airport on a flight to the United Arab Emirates before taking a connecting flight to Georgia, a total of between 15 and 24 hours depending on the airline. According to Mr Salakaia, she thought Tbilisi was a country rather than a city. Bella’s own publicity on social media and her confidence about travelling abroad, for example to the Philippines from UK to meet a friend and subsequently flying alone to Thailand, are not easy to reconcile with the naivety defence. She apparently spent time with a man called Russ who has not been identified but is not responsible for the pregnancy. Thai police lieutenant colonel Arun Musikim said all the British drugs cases he knew involved the promise of cash or reward for potential mules. There is little doubt that Bella had fallen into the clutches of a drugs cartel in some way. The drugs in her suitcase had been packed professionally and Bella’s obvious gregariousness made her a likely target for unscrupulous dealers. The real question is her willingness, or lack of it, to be a mule. Bella’s trial begins in Tbilisi on July 10. There are a range of options up to a sentence of 20 years imprisonment. Alternatively, the judges could fine the defendant and order her prompt deportation. The most encouraging precedent is Samantha Orobator, a Brit who was convicted in Laos of heroin smuggling in 2008. The 20 year old was transferred to the UK within months owing to her pregnancy and a hastily constructed memorandum of understanding between the two governments.