Johannesburg - A George family is involved in the legal battle of their lives, 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 initially received a death sentence but that was later 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, however, is safely in the US, while his former girlfriend languishes in a Thai prison, thousands of miles from home.
Oosthuizen, a former pupil at Outeniqua High School, George, jetted off to Thailand in March 2018, shortly after she matriculated and took up a job as a teacher on Koh Samui island.
It was there that she met the 32-year-old American teacher who was employed at another school on the island and soon the pair were an item.
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 years of age.
Nepps wrote on FB: "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 didn’t he 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 (sic) against their will with experimental cocktails, would be bowing to tyrants. I do not bow to tyrants, I kill them.”
After Oosthuizen lost her job at the school, Nepps offered her a managerial position at a restaurant called Hot in the Biscuit where she also designed the branding for the business.
Oosthuizen was reportedly arrested on October 8, 2020, after she accepted a package from a delivery man on behalf of someone else. 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.
The stressed father said he last spoke with his daughter for between three and five minutes in December. The family is only allowed one phone/skype call per month.
Nepps had been hiding the MDMA in the biscuits and selling those to his regulars. "At no point did Ashley ever know that I was having drugs sent to her little biscuit shop. At no point did she 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 appears 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 Ashley, 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,” says Patricia Gerber, the director of Locked Up, an NGO that assists South Africans in prisons overseas.
Gerber has been in contact with Ashley’s mother and is giving the support she can. The good news, says 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.”
Speaking to Independent Newspaper, Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said the department was aware of Ashley’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.