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Kelly Trueman free from Mumbai prison after three-year battle
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Dec 08 by Dave Crossthwaite
Kelly Trueman was found not guilty of drug charges by an Indian Court and is free after almost three years in a Mumbai prison.
Kelly Trueman's mother Robyn has been living in India for several months. She is now reunited with her daughter.'
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Kelly Trueman's mother Robyn has been living in India for several months. She is now reunited with her daughter.
Kelly Trueman was found not guilty of drug charges by an Indian Court and is free after almost three years in a Mumbai prison.
A RINGWOOD NORTH woman locked up in a Mumbai prison for three years will be reunited with loved ones after an Indian court found her not guilty of drug trafficking, it was revealed this morning.
Kelly Trueman, 25, was arrested in March, 2006 and charged with the possession, carriage and involvement in conspiracy to export 5.7kg of hashish.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade this morning confirmed Ms Trueman had been acquitted and released into the custody of her family.
Her father, Michael Trueman, told Leader: "Kelly will be out today and will have her mother and her sister with her."
She was held on remand in Mumbai’s Byculla District Women’s Prison for almost three years.
Last week Mr Trueman said he feared terrorist attacks in Mumbai would delay the verdict in his daughter’s trial.
Her mother, Robyn, and sister Lani have been living in Mumbai for several months.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said Kelly was acquitted of the charges yesterday.
"Officials from the Australian Consulate-General in Mumbai and the Department in Canberra will continue as necessary to provide consular assistance to Ms Trueman and her family, including assisting Ms Trueman with arrangements for her to return to Australia," the spokeswoman said.
Consular staff in Mumbai and Canberra provided assistance to Ms Trueman during her detention, the spokeswoman said.
This included regular prison visits to ensure her health and welfare needs were being met, attending court hearings, keeping contact with Ms Trueman’s family in Mumbai and Australia, and support during family visits to India.
In an undated open letter to supporters, published before her release on the supporters’ website Kelly’s Page, Ms Trueman revealed conditions inside the women’s prison.
"One thing that’s quite bizarre to think about, is how normal its become to be living with people who have murdered, with prostitutes, with people who have put children into prostitution, even with people who’ve killed their own children," she wrote.
"Is just weird because it’s become so normal."
In a second letter sent to supporters, she says: "I’m sitting here in my jugga (that’s what we call our individual bed space) feeling extremely hot.
"The monsoon only finished 2-3 weeks ago, it was a long season but only sporadic rain, and today the first REALLY hot day.
"I don’t know if any of you have a vivid enough imagination to even begin to imagine the chaotic scene that happens here when I want to go to the canteen.
"It’s just ridiculous!
`When they actually decide to open the canteen, within one minute there is a mad rush of women all desperately trying to get to the front.
"In this scorching heat we are all burning up, dripping with sweat and very cranky within minutes."
Kelly’s mother told Leader in September last year: "It’s not like the prison bars you think of but two layers of thick mesh and just overwhelming.
"Now I just look at her bright eyes and when we go to court, once a fortnight, we get to cuddle.
"I’m so proud of how Kelly’s handling herself; she’s studying and teaching yoga, because she’s seen how some sit and stare all day.
"They sleep on concrete floors with the lights on 24 hours a day, but her spirit is helping keep us all together."
To the 60 other foreign nationals in the prison, Mrs Trueman had become "Mama".
"Whenever I bring in art supplies, books and material for Kelly I bring double, because 99 per cent of the other women don’t have anyone on the outside helping them," Mrs Trueman said last year.
"They write me letters and call me Mama and I do what I can for them because it’s a tough life."
Kelly had planned to return home to Australia in May, 2007 after a two-year around-the-world adventure.
The adventure started in Wales in 2005, converting an old campervan to run on sugar and attaching solar panels to its roof, before heading off through France, Germany and Spain.
But the dream came to an end last March when Ms Trueman was arrested at airport in Mumbai, accused of drug trafficking.
Kelly faced 10 years in jail.
She was allowed one contact visit a week in prison and maintained contact with family and friends via the internet.
For more than a year Ms Trueman maintained a web diary, with the help of friends and family who transcribed and posted her letters and poems on the site.
Mr Trueman said his daughter taught dancing and craft to about 30 children who lived in the prison with their mothers.
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Kelly Trueman trying to be positive after Mumbai jail term
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Article from: AAP -
December 05, 2008
A MELBOURNE woman says she is focusing on the positive after enduring a Mumbai jail cell for three years before being acquitted.
"I have learnt a lot about myself and about the way people are,'' Kelly Trueman told the Nine Network today.
"I am actually a different person now. My priorities are different now.
"My family, we're very very close now. I choose to look at the positives rather than the negatives.''
After languishing in the prison since March 2006, the 26-year-old Melbourne woman was found not guilty on Wednesday on charges of trafficking 5.7kg of hashish.
She has been released from jail but now has to remain in India indefinitely as she waits to be granted an exit visa and said she was not sure how long the process would take.
"They don't like to give visas to people afterwards because you have to wait for some time for the appeal time,'' she said.
"I am not at all thinking that far ahead, I am taking each day as it comes.
"I am quite overwhelmed coming outside (jail) as it is.''
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Waiting game for Melbourne woman wanting to leave India
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Posted Fri Dec 5, 2008 10:40am AEDT
A Melbourne woman who was released from an Indian jail this week, after being found not guilty of drug trafficking is still waiting for permission to leave.
Kelly Trueman spent more than two-and-a-half years on remand in a Mumbai jail after being arrested in 2006.
She was charged with exporting 5.7 kilograms of hashish.
But she was released two days ago after an Indian court dismissed the charges.
Ms Trueman has told Channel 9 that she is not sure when she will be given an exit visa.
"I really don't know. I'm not thinking at all thinking anywhere that far ahead," she said.
"I'm just taking each day as it comes. I'm actually quite overwhelmed just coming outside as it is."
"They don't like to give visas to people afterwards, because you have to wait for some time for an appeal," she said.
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