Despite being jailed for six years in South America, one of the so-called 'Peru Two' could be back in the UK before the year is out. Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum, both 20 year olds who had been summering in Ibiza before flying over to South America, were found guilty of smuggling £1.5m worth of cocaine into Peru last year, and were jailed in Lima.
However, thanks to an appeal launched by her family, Melissa (main picture, right) could be brought back to Britain to serve out the rest of her sentence here. Paying a £3,500 fine, her parents have submitted a formal request to the Foreign Office, in the hopes that she can transfer to a prison closer to her home of Lenzie, Dunbartonshire.
'We've started the process to get Melissa transferred.’ Melissa's dad Billy told The Belfast Telegraph. He has fears that Melissa isn't being treated fairly in the Virgen De Fatima prison, alleging: 'She has no access to clean running water – she has to buy bottled water when she can – and she is surviving on bread, rice and chicken most of the time, so I am worried about her nutrition.'
According to The Telegraph, Melissa called her dad last week to complain about the living conditions of the prison – which has been known to house murderers and terrorists, saying, ‘I can’t bear the thought of being so far away from my family and friends for all that time… Please help me get home. Please do all you can to get me out of here.’ No word yet on whether Michaella's family will lodge the same request.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.