Overview

• Artug and six other British nationals were charged on July 22 after 161kg of cannabis, including 14kg found in her son’s suitcase, was seized arriving from London.
• She is held in the women’s wing of Beau Bassin Central Prison, which a 2014 US State Department report described as lacking adequate sanitation and medical care.
• London-based charity Justice Abroad asserts she was coerced into the smuggling operation by criminals who threatened her and her family.
• Her six-year-old son has been returned to the UK, and Foreign Office officials remain in contact with Mauritian authorities to provide consular assistance.
• She faces over a year on remand before trial, highlighting broader concerns about lengthy pretrial detention in Mauritius’s justice system.