Video: Peru women could serve sentence at home if convicted

Prosecutor says if women plead guilty they could get a sentence of ‘six to eight years maximum’

Two women held on drug trafficking charges in Peru could return to the UK to serve their sentence if they plead guilty in a Peruvian court, prosecutor Luis Mendoza tells Reuters.

The two women being held in Peru on suspicion of trying to smuggle cocaine worth €1.7 million out of the country may be allowed to return home to serve their sentence if they plead guilty.

Prosecutor Luis Mendoza said the trial of Michaella McCollum Connolly (20) from Dungannon, Co Tyrone and Melissa Reid (20) from Glasgow is due to begin next Tuesday.

Mr Mendoza said if Ms McCollum Connolly and Ms Reid continue with their strategy they can go to trial.

“However, they are able to qualify for an early termination, which means they probably could get a sentence of six to eight years maximum.”

READ MORE

"It's very possible that they may complete their sentence in the United Kingdom. There is an agreement in our country that those convicted, meaning those that have been convicted, they can choose an early termination procedure, assuming their guilt and paying civil damages and agreeing to the judgement, meaning there is no kind of appeal."

The women were stopped with 24lb of cocaine hidden in food packets in their luggage while trying to board a flight to Spain last month.

Ms Reid and Ms McCollum have so far claimed they were forced to carry the drugs by an armed gang who threatened them and their family members.

Mr Mendoza said the women appeared to have been duped by a gang into smuggling the drugs.

“The position of the Public Ministry is that they were captured by an organisation, imagine that they told them that everything here was controlled, that nothing was going to happen and it’s an adventure. That they simply had to transfer the drugs and no one would detain or discover them.”

Ms Reid’s father Billy told ITV Daybreak that she is negotiating a plea in the hope she will be sentenced to less than seven years in jail, which would allow her to be transferred to Britain to serve her sentence.