Georgia frees pregnant UK teenager who smuggled drugs from Thailand

By Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI (Reuters) -Bella Culley, a pregnant British teenager jailed in Georgia for smuggling marijuana and hashish from Thailand, was freed on Monday under a plea agreement that sentenced her to the nearly six months she had already spent in jail.

Flanked by her mother and lawyer outside the courthouse moments after being released, Culley, 19, said she had not been expecting to walk free, and was "happy and relieved" at the news.

Culley, from Billingham in northeast England, was sentenced to the five months and 24 days she had already served in jail in the South Caucasus country, where she had been arrested at the airport on arrival in May after going missing in Thailand. She also paid a fine of 500,000 lari ($187,000).

Georgian prosecutors say she was carrying 12 kg (26 pounds) of marijuana and 2 kg of hashish in her luggage. She and her defence team had said she was tortured in Thailand and forced to transport the drugs.

Culley, who is about eight months pregnant, initially pleaded not guilty at a hearing in July to possession and trafficking of illegal drugs.

The case prosecutor, Vakhtang Tsalughelashvili, said authorities had adjusted her plea agreement after taking into account her young age and pregnancy.

"We are very grateful that they took Bella's situation and financial condition into consideration," Culley's lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, told reporters.

Monday's sentencing caps a high-profile trial that thrust Culley and her family into the public eye at a time when Tbilisi is tightening penalties for drug-related offences.

Drug smuggling carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years in Georgia. The government earlier this year passed amendments increasing penalties for consuming and possessing small amounts of some narcotics.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Peter Graff)