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The family of a pregnant British teenager, Bella Culley, has confirmed they paid $187,000 (£140,000) to a Georgian court on Tuesday to secure her release.
It followed her arrest on drug smuggling charges earlier this year.
Nineteen-year-old Ms Culley, from Billingham, northeast England, was apprehended at Tbilisi airport in May upon her arrival in the South Caucasus nation.
Her arrest followed a period where she had been reported missing in Thailand. Georgian prosecutors allege she was found with 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish in her luggage.
Lyanne Kennedy, the mother of 19-year-old Bella May Culley who was arrested upon arrival at the Tbilisi Airport in May and accused of attempting to smuggle marijuana and hashish into the country (AP)
Drug smuggling carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years in Georgia. Culley has been held at a women’s prison in Rustavi, a city just outside Tbilisi.
Culley’s mother, Lyanne Kennedy, told reporters outside the Tbilisi courthouse on Tuesday that the family had paid 500,000 lari ($186,846) and were waiting for the funds to be credited to the relevant government account.
Asked about the health of her daughter Kennedy said: “She’s looking big, pregnant, but she looks strong.”
Culley’s lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, said the court would hold another hearing on the case next Monday.
Culley initially pleaded not guilty at a hearing in July to possession and trafficking illegal drugs, and said she had been tortured into transporting them.
She said she was a “clean person” and did not do drugs.
