Precious 12½ min video call with Ashley

GEORGE NEWS - The Nakhon Si Thammarat Central Prison in Thailand granted South African prisoner, Ashley Oosthuizen (23) and her mother, Lynn Blignaut, both from George, 12 and a half minutes to do a video call on Wednesday 6 July.

"The calls are usually limited to 10 minutes, but the time goes by so quickly. You're so excited to see and speak to each another, before you know it the time is over. But it's the small mercies that keep us going," says Blignaut.

Blignaut says her daughter is still doing well under the circumstances and is healthy. She has also started working as a librarian in prison. "She obviously desperately wants to come home, but she is in good spirits. She works at the library every weekday from 09:00 to 11:00. She loves books," she says.

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 (25 years).

Her mother travelled to Thailand in April/May this year in the hope of seeing her daughter, but due to the Covid restrictions at that stage, it was impossible.

"In the meantime she has learnt to speak, read, write and even dream fluent Thai," says her mother. "She is also giving cha-cha lessons in prison and two of her students will be competing in a dance competition held between various prisons in Bangkok."

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 maintains 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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