Fight to free SA woman in Thai jail

A GEORGE family are involved in the legal battle of their lives and the result could mean freedom or life in a Thai prison for their daughter.

Ashley Oosthuizen was sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand in August last year for selling drugs. She received a death sentence which was changed to life imprisonment.

The 22-year-old and her family maintain she’s innocent. To add to the family’s woes, her former boyfriend, known as Triss Nepps on Facebook (FB), admitted to the crime. He is safely in the US, while his former girlfriend is in a Thai prison.

Oosthuizen, a former pupil at Outeniqua High School, George, flew to Thailand in March 2018, shortly after she matriculated to work as a teacher on Koh Samui island.

There she met the American teacher, 32, who was employed at another school on the island and soon the pair were romantically involved.

According to a statement published on Facebook and sent to the George Herald, Triss Nepps admitted to being a former international drug trafficker, with a long criminal record stretching back to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon when he was only 11.

Nepps wrote on Facebook: “I was a high-school science teacher at one of the leading international schools there (Thailand), but I made more than most of my money from selling party drugs to the expats. Everything I do is for Ashley.

“Had I come sooner, no one would listen. Now that I have websites, a business, a book, and more – now Ashley can no longer be ignored. Ashley’s only crime was being my girlfriend.”

When asked by George Herald reporter Kristy Kolberg if he wanted to help and if he cared so much, why he didn’t go back to Thailand and tell the authorities that he was the guilty party, Nepps responded: “Because accepting a life sentence for importing harmless MDMA for consenting adults after governments just forcibly vaccinated millions against their will with experimental cocktails, would be bowing to tyrants. I do not bow to tyrants, I kill them.”

Oosthuizen was reportedly arrested on October 8, 2020, after she accepted a package from a delivery man on behalf of someone else. Allegedly unbeknown to her, the package contained 250g of MDMA (Ecstasy).

According to her father, André Oosthuizen, she was arrested within five minutes of the package being delivered. “They also searched her apartment, took her laptop but found no drugs or record of any drug sales. My daughter was raised properly. I know she’s innocent,”

He said he last spoke with his daughter for between three and five minutes in December. The family is only allowed one call per month.

“At no point did Ashley ever know I was an international dark web drug dealer,” Nepps said in his statement.

Oosthuizen’s mother, Lynette Blignaut, said she spoke with her daughter yesterday morning and she appeared to be in high spirits.

“We actually spoke for 15 minutes. We are only allowed one call per month. We are still not allowed to visit her because of the new Covid-19 variant,” she said.

The family is appealing the life imprisonment sentence but that could take between eight and 14 months to be resolved.

The family has severed all contact with Nepps.

“He did try to contact me but I want nothing to do with him,” said Blignaut.

For Oosthuizen, the life sentence means possibly years living in squalid conditions where she will have limited contact with her family.

“They sleep on the floor and they lie like sardines. It is overcrowded and it is very, very strict,” said Patricia Gerber, the director of Locked Up, an NGO that assists South Africans in prisons overseas.

Gerber has been in contact with Oosthuizen’s mother and is giving the support she can.

The good news, said Gerber, is that most drug convicted prisoners serve only a portion of their life sentences.

“In Thailand every year they are given a reduction in their sentence, and this is to do with the king’s birthday.”

Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said the department was aware of Oosthuizen’s arrest and court appearances in Thailand.

He said the department and the South African Embassy in Bangkok were providing her and her family with consular assistance.