Update

GEORGE NEWS - After being in isolation for nearly three months, Ashley Oosthuizen (23), who is currently trapped in a Thai prison, could speak to her mother last week for the first time since February this year.

"Due to a few people infected with Covid-19, all inmates were quarantined," said Ashley's mother, Lynn Blignaut. "No one was allowed any form of outside communication. By the grace of God, our daughter was not affected at all and is still in good health and high spirits. We are now able to speak with her once a month for 10 minutes."

Oosthuizen, a former learner of Outeniqua High School, left for Thailand when she was 19.

She was working there as a teacher when she met her then boyfriend, Tristan Nettles - a self-confessed dark web drug dealer with a history of criminal convictions.

When she was laid off due to a dispute about her qualifications, Nettles offered her a position at a restaurant, Hot in the Biscuit. She was arrested for drug dealing after she accepted a package containing ecstasy from a delivery man on behalf of someone else at the restaurant in October 2020. Oosthuizen is now facing life in prison in the Nakhon Si Thammarat Central Prison.

According to Oosthuizen, she was unaware of the contents of the package. In a statement by Nettles, he admits to using the business for regular drug deals without Oosthuizen's knowledge.

According to Nettles, he is currently voluntarily fighting in Ukraine against Russia to put the spotlight on Ashley and says he hopes that going to war in Ukraine will help bring her story to a larger audience and raise pressure for Thai courts to revisit her case.

He appears to have joined Ukraine's International Legion. He recently e-mailed the Florida Times-Union images of an enlistment contract with Ukraine's Ministry of Defence and an ID stamped with the number of the military unit listed in the contract. His family agrees he left to join the fighting.

Tristan Nettles e-mailed “proof” of him joining Ukraine’s International Legion to the Canadian paper Florida Times-Union recently. 

This could however not yet be confirmed by other sources or the Ukrainian embassy.

"My original plan was to go to DC and do a hunger strike there, but then the war started and the call went out for volunteers," Nettles said to a Florida Times-Union reporter.

"I felt I could kill multiple birds with a single stone and, by fighting for other people's freedom, I felt sure other people would help fight for hers when they found out the monstrous injustice she continues to suffer," he said.

In a previous statement, according to Lizelle Martin, who is part of Ashley's legal representation, said it is common sense that if Ashley knew that there were drugs in that package she would have hidden it.

"She did not open the package as it was not addressed to her and she had no knowledge of the contents. Furthermore, no evidence was found at her apartment and her drug tests also came back negative," said Martin.

"Regardless, Ashley is doing well under the circumstances. We spoke to her about three weeks ago and she is doing well and she remains positive. The jail she is kept in was under quarantine for a while due to a Covid outbreak, but that's to be understood as certain protocols had to be followed regarding line visits and movement of inmates."

According to Martin, Oosthuizen is kept in a cell with 67 other women all sharing one bathroom.

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