Update
GEORGE NEWS - Friends, family and supporters of Ashley Oosthuizen (23) are asked to wear yellow today, Thursday 3 March, on her birthday
"Her friends took the initiative and are asking everyone, as a sign of support, to wear her favourite colour, yellow, on her birthday," said her mother, Lynn Blignaut.
Photos can be posted on social media with @avoiceforashley. If you don't have yellow in your closet, orange will do. "I hope to speak to her on Thursday as well," said Blignaut.
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.
She was however laid off due to a dispute about her qualifications and Nettles offered her a position at a restaurant, Hot in the Biscuit.
She was arrested for drug dealing when she accepted a package containing ecstacy from a delivery man on behalf of someone else at her place of work 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.
Family
Blignaut says the day she heard her daughter was arrested, her life collapsed. Nettles notified Ashley's father, André Oosthuizen, of her arrest via WhatsApp.
"After her arrest, they tested Ashley for drugs - she was clean. They searched her home and found nothing. They seized her laptop and found no evidence of transactions. She was an A student at school without a criminal record," said Oosthuizen.
She was initially handed down the death penalty, but on sentencing the court decided on life imprisonment (25 years). Nettles left Thailand before her arrest.
"Please mom, don't stop fighting," she writes in a recent letter to her mother. "I want to get home as soon as possible, my heart is aching, I want to speak Afrikaans, eat familiar foods and give mom a hug and hold on for a long time."
Her legal representative, who is currently visiting South Africa but practices mainly in the USA, Lizelle Martin, has handed in an appeal to her sentence with assistance from a Thai law firm, Siam Legal. This appeal might only come before court in the next 18 months.
Read more:
- Free Ashley: Parents thankful for support
- Free Ashley: Parents to open Trust Fund for donations
- Free Ashley
'We bring you the latest George, Garden Route news'
