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British law graduates will not return to prison, lawyer claims
Peter Dominiczak3 Aug 2009
A lawyer representing two British law graduates said today he believes they will not have to return to prison over allegations they fraudulently claimed they had been robbed in Brazil.
Renato Tonini said he felt confident that even if Shanti Andrews and Rebecca Turner were convicted, they would be able to serve their punishment without being sent to jail.
Miss Andrews and Miss Turner, both 23, were freed on bail son Saturday and were today staying in a hotel ahead of a court appearance in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.
Mr Tonini said the women, both University of Sussex law graduates on a nine-month journey around the world, will have the charge of attempted insurance fraud read to them in English during the hearing.
Speaking from Rio de Janeiro, Mr Tonini said: “I'm very confident that they will not be going back to prison. Even if they are convicted, I think a fine would solve the problem.
“I haven't spoken to them today but yesterday they were very happy to be released. The next step is the court appearance on Wednesday, where someone will read the charge to them in English.”
Mr Tonini said he hoped a judgment would be made on the merit of the charge in up to four weeks' time.
In the meantime, the lawyer said the women had voluntarily surrendered their passports to the Brazilian authorities to show they have no intention of fleeing.
The pair are alleged to have told police in the South American country that belongings totalling £1,000 had been stolen during a bus journey.
The pair were taken into custody at dawn last Monday after officers from a specialist tourist support unit apparently became suspicious that they had waited several days before reporting to police.
The website of Rio de Janeiro state's civil police said the pair had tried to register a robbery, alleging they had been attacked.
A subsequent search of their lodgings in Copacabana allegedly uncovered some of the belongings that they had originally told officers had been stolen.
After being freed from custody, the women spoke of their ordeal, surrounded by drug traffickers, robbers and murderers before being moved to a second jail they described as entering “the gates of hell”.
Describing the first jail, Miss Turner said “It was a living nightmare. It was the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me in my life.”
Miss Andrews said: “We slept maybe two or three hours in the past week, we were just so tired. We were packed in so tight you couldn't turn over.
“We couldn't stop shivering. It wasn't because it was cold. A lot of the time it was boiling hot. It was anxiety.”
Miss Andrews' father Alan is said to have used part of his life savings to travel to Brazil to help gain their freedom.
Miss Andrews' mother, Simone Headley, who lives in Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, earlier said the two friends were traumatised by their ordeal and that it had been a “misunderstanding”.
