A lawyer for one of the suspected drug mules held in a Peruvian prison has said she is confident her story of coercion will be proved.
Peter Madden, who is representing Michaella McCollum, 20, from Northern Ireland, said she and co-accused Melissa Reid, also 20, from Scotland, are scared and confused but will have to decide within weeks whether to plead guilty or protest their innocence at a trial.
Mr Madden said: “They are basically confident enough that what they have told the authorities will be eventually proved. The Peruvian system is still that they are innocent until proven guilty, but in reality they have to try to prove that what they said happened to them did happen.”
Mr Madden, a well-known human rights solicitor from Belfast who has acted for high-profile republicans, has just returned from South America.
He added: “They are frightened. They are unsure of their future. They are in a prison in which they are the only two foreigners.”
Both women are being held in the notorious Virgen de Fatima jail in Lima, which houses some of the country’s most dangerous criminals.
The lawyer said they have been well treated by the authorities but acknowledged conditions inside the jail are harsh.
The women were stopped with 24lb of cocaine with an estimated street value of £1.5 million, hidden in food packets in their luggage while trying to board a flight to Spain earlier this month.
Mr Madden said that under new laws soon to take effect in Peru they could be released after two years if they accept responsibility for their crime.