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Girls ‘holding up’ after drugs verdict
Social workers may help determine sentence
ISLINGTON social workers could be called in to help Ghanaian authorities decide how to sentence two teenagers found guilty this week of attempting to traffick £300,000 worth of cocaine.
The Tribune has learned that the fates of Yasemin Vatansever and Yetunde Diya, former students at Islington Arts and Media School in Finsbury Park, lie in the hands of social workers, who will make recommendations on how long they should remain in a juvenile detention centre.
The 16-year-olds, who were found guilty by a court in Accra on Wednesday, are preparing to appeal against the judgment but face sentencing on December 5.
The girls – supported by legal charity Fair Trials International and human rights barrister Joe Stone, from Doughty Street Chambers – have maintained they had no idea the cases they were carrying contained drugs.
Speaking to the Tribune shortly after she flew back from Ghana yesterday (Thursday), Sabine Zanker, of Fair Trials International, said British social services may be asked to help prepare a report recommending to the judge how long the girls should be incarcerated. But, with only two weeks until sentencing, there may not be enough time.
Ms Zanker said the girls were “devastated but had shown a lot of dignity”.
“It has been a huge shock for them – 16-year-olds differ very much but they are really quite young,” she added. “It’s very difficult for them.
“The families still have to come to terms with the shock. The girls had a strong defence. They are holding up. I’m proud of them.”
The teenagers were being treated fairly but could face much worse conditions in a juvenile detention centre, Ms Zanker said.
“At the moment they are just two in one room but we expect them to share a cell with many more,” she added. “It’s not a holiday camp. I know in adult prisons a number of people can be put in one cell and there are problems with overcrowding but we don’t know if it’s the same for juveniles.
“The conditions are not ideal but there’s nothing I can criticise. We have to expect that any sentence will be spent in Ghana.”
In a statement released through Fair Trials International, the girls’ families have said: “Yasemin and Yetunde are two extremely vulnerable young girls whose naivete was ruthlessly exploited by the men who lured them to Ghana and left them to this terrible fate.”
Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn hopes the Ghanaian courts will recognise the girls’ vulnerability and treat them leniently.
“Both girls had just left school in my constituency and had their whole lives in front of them,” he said. “The school considered them to be conscientious and well meaning, though neither was academic. Their former teachers are convinced they were more gullible and naive than capable of a serious crime.
“I hate to think of the consequences of a long incarceration in a place so far from home for these two foolish and unworldly girls.” |
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