Bella Culley shows her British passport at Bangkok airport and proceeds just like thousands of others daily. Georgian lawyer Malkhaz Salakaia is steering his British teenage client into a high drama or kitchen sink defence to avoid a 20 years prison sentence in the ex Soviet republic. Bella Culley is accused of trying to import into the capital, Tbilisi, 30 pounds weight of marijuana and hashish packed in Thailand. It’s said to be worth 200,000 sterling or 9 million baht on the secretive world market. She says she was set up by a gang of Thais and Brits. Salakaia’s latest move this week in pre-trial hearings disputed the CCTV footage, released by Thai police major general Cherngron Rimphadee, of Culley exiting passport control at a Bangkok airport. The senior policeman is currently commander of Immigration Division 2 (incorporating Bangkok airport security) and a frequent spokesman on Thai criminal cases. But the defence lawyer told the Georgian court that the footage last May does not disprove his claim that Culley tried to ask for help at the airport but was ignored. Yet the clip demonstrates that Culley presented her British passport in the normal way and passed through all airport security procedures without incident. Thus the lawyer is forced to rely on presumably nearby criminal gang members watching the proceedings or ambiguous finger gestures by Culley which are impossible to decipher. Culley now claims that her suitcase was packed by a third party and was boarded without her knowledge. There is a further “ex silentio”, or no evidence, claim that she had previously sought help from policemen in a Bangkok street who had retuned her to the drugs gang. Since the teen says she had also phoned her family in the UK pleading for help, it is astonishing that nobody evidently tried to contact either the British foreign office in London or the embassy in Bangkok. There is a 24-hours line open for emergencies of this kind. Packing drugs in suitcases very close together is a strategy to deceive the airport screening x-rays and deteriorate the images. The lawyer’s defence strategy has been to weave an increasingly complex web. Initially, he told the court that 19-year old Culley was not far from “being a child” and easily manipulated. This plea ignores the fact that she travelled in Asia without a companion and was active on social media with a love of selfies. There is ample proof on Facebook that she loved money. Of course, it can be argued that most teens fall into that category, but not many Brit youngsters travel from Manila to Bangkok unescorted and pregnant. The upcoming baby is another defence argument, strengthened by UK medics stressing that pregnant mums need special treatment in prison which they doubt Culley is receiving. She herself has lodged no complaint. In the worst scenario, the baby might have to spend years in a foreign prison nursery or even be separated from its mother. A similar situation has led to other female drugs prisoners being fairly quickly transferred to their home country, as instanced by the case of Samantha Orobator repatriated from Laos to UK in 2009. However, the two cases are different in that Orobator became pregnant whilst actually in detention. Much has been made the claim that Culley still shows the results of a hot iron burn on her arm during a torture session somewhere in Bangkok to force her into muling. Since the defence has not, so far as we know, issued pictures of the scar or mark the only conclusion can be that it’s inconclusive evidence. However, its true that the actual case hasn’t come to formal trial yet. The next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for July 24. Maybe Salakaia is keeping some of his powder dry, so to speak. Few people would deny that Culley has been the victim of a drugs mule crude attempt illegally to export drugs for street sales, perhaps in the ex Soviet republic which actually attracts more European tourists than might be assumed and where English is widely spoken. The question is whether she acted willingly or not. The drugs were very professionally packed, far beyond the competence of a non-expert. Some reports query why the Bangkok airport luggage scanners failed to notice the actual contents of the offending suitcase. But that’s a worldwide problem. There are false positives and negatives in x-ray detection as well as poor image quality due to object density and their actual positioning in the bag. To this must be added human fatigue and distraction on the part of the screeners, particularly at peak times. It is well known that traffickers are often booked on flights leaving at busy times. Bangkok is no exception. Salakaia’s kitchen sink defence is likely geared to a plea deal with the Tbilisi state prosecutor to settle for a fine and deportation to UK. But if a prison sentence is announced for a pregnant mum, expect the British foreign office and the Georgian government to come up with a transfer deal soon afterwards. Bad publicity is embarrassing all round and can negatively affect tourism: both countries will be anxious to protect their separate interests. Kitchen sinks are all part of the game.