Ashley Oosthuizen, who is serving a drug trafficking life sentence in a Thai prison, has penned another letter, this time detailing the harrowing experiences of some of the woman inmates.
ASHLEY Oosthuizen, who is serving a drug trafficking prison sentence in a Thai prison, has penned another letter, this time detailing the harrowing experiences of some of the woman inmates.
The letter, titled “Never shrink from standing up for ourselves when mistreated” was shared with A Voice for Ashley Oosthuizen, social media page last week.
The 24-year-old originally from George detailed how a group of women took a stand against “horrendous circumstances”.
“One day, after a prolonged period of horrendous circumstances in the living space called ‘their room’, the group of women who decided to take a stand, did so by simply refusing to go upstairs when it was time for lock-up. Female officers tried to subjugate the rebels, but to no avail. Eventually armed male officers were called in to take matters into their own hands and these men proceeded by hitting many women with their batons, even though none of the prisoners were aggressive,” she wrote.
When the women were given the chance to speak, they detailed the conditions they were living in.
“There’s only one toilet for all of us and should I get up to use the bathroom, I’ll have lost my spot when I return.”
“We need to take turns lying down or sitting up, because there just isn’t enough room for all of us.
“Some of the younger ones or old ladies could be seen crying at night because of lack of sleep and discomfort … Something needs to change,” Oosthuizen quoted the women.
She said they were later moved to another facility and others punished with confinement.
“It seems that the Lord spared me from the very worst,” she wrote. “Even though the instigators of change could never see what fruit their efforts bore, they certainly did a great service to those who came after them. May we thus never shrink from standing up for ourselves when we are being mistreated, no matter how ‘low’ we may be at the specific time.”
Oosthuizen moved to Thailand in 2018 after getting an opportunity to be a preschool teacher on the island of Koh Samui after matric. She was arrested for international drug trafficking after she accepted a package containing MDMA (ecstasy) while working at a restaurant in the island.
“I got arrested back in 2020 ... It’s been well over two years since that fateful day. I can still remember arriving at the little shop, preparing for my day at work - serving breakfast with a smile, completely oblivious of the evil that awaits me.
“I’m still fighting my case; all the while living behind bars. Now it’s time to put myself in contact with the world,“ she said earlier last month.
Cape Times
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