Teen 'smugglers' remanded
2007-07-19 09:19
Accra - Two British teenage girls, arrested in Ghana allegedly in possession of several kilograms of cocaine, were remanded in custody after they appeared in court on Wednesday, said officials.
The hearing at a juvenile court in Accra, their second appearance in a week, took place behind closed doors.
An official from the British High Commission, Garry Nichols, who was in the courtroom, said the girls' names and ages were confirmed so the trial could be treated as a juvenile case.
Later, the case was handed to a juvenile court judge, who read out the charges against them. The judge later ordered the girls to be remanded in custody until July 26 when formal charges would be brought against them.
Nichols said: "Pleas were taken, but they were asked to be reserved pending formal charges. The charges against them now are only provisional so their pleas were not entered."
'We were set up by two boys'
He said charities in Britain are financing their legal costs. He added: "They brought us the money and we passed it on to the girls." The girls faced up to three years in jail if convicted.
British officials said the 16-year-olds were found with $610 000 worth of cocaine at Accra Airport on July 02 during a joint Ghanaian-British narcotics operation.
They had been due to board a British Airways flight to London and were allegedly in possession of 6.5kg of cocaine.
One of the students, whose names had not been released, had said they were set up by "two boys over here who gave us two bags" to deliver to another male at the airport in London.
The girl said: "It was basically like a set up. They didn't tell us nothing, we didn't think nothing ... basically we are innocent. We don't know nothing about this drugs and stuff, we don't know nothing."
Ghanaian officials had said the girls claimed that a Ghanaian in Britain named Jay paid for their airfare and told them to meet two people at the airport.
Mark Ewuntomah of Ghana's Narcotics Control Board said last week that Jay promised them $3 000 each to bring him two laptop bags.
He said the cocaine was discovered concealed in false compartments in the laptop bags. Police were still looking for two other people wanted in connection with the drugs haul.