GEORGE NEWS - Although Ashley Oosthuizen's (23) leave to appeal did not bring the news she and her family were hoping for, they still hold on to the silver lining around what turned out to be a very dark cloud.
An application for leave to appeal was heard in front of an independent bench of judges in the Koh Samui court in Thailand yesterday, Wednesday 17 August.
If the appeal was successful, she could have been acquitted and allowed to return home. This was sadly not the case - and to add insult to injury, it seems the family had misunderstood her sentence of life imprisonment.
"We found out yesterday that we misunderstood about her life sentence," said Oosthuizen's mother, Lynn Blignaut. "It appears that Ashley got a full life sentence and not just 25 years. Considering this, her appeal went well and her sentence was lessened to 33 years."
She said they again have 30 days to appeal. "Of course we hoped that she would be acquitted, but we rely on our heavenly Father and trust that He still has everything under control. We praise Him for every little miracle. Our trust is still in Him and we know that His plans for Ashley's future are good," said Blignaut.
Oosthuizen, a former Outeniqua High learner, is serving a life sentence after she was found guilty of drug dealing in 2021. She was initially told she would be sentenced to death, but on sentencing in August that year received life imprisonment.
Arrested
Oosthuizen left for Thailand when she was 19 and met her then boyfriend, Tristan Nettles, while she was working as a teacher. When she was laid off due to a dispute about her qualifications, Nettles offered her a position at a restaurant.
She was arrested for drug dealing after she accepted a package containing ecstasy from a delivery man at the restaurant in October 2020 - allegedly on behalf of someone else.
Oosthuizen however maintains that she was unaware of the contents of the package and in a statement, Nettles admitted to using the restaurant for regular drug deals without his girlfriend's knowledge. But Nettles, a self-confessed dark web drug dealer with a history of criminal convictions, was never prosecuted as he left Thailand before Oosthuizen's arrest.
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