Teresa Daniels - Spain

April 04

Update

Teresa has been transferred back to the UK via a prisoner transfer. She now hopes to be granted a pardon and her lawyers in Spain are currently working on submitting such an application.

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Teresa Daniels,a British national, decide to travel and work abroad after leaving college at the age of 24. She planned to visit Asia, Australia and the US before pursuing a career in the police force.

She went first to Tenerife, where her family had been on holiday several time, and started working in a bar. After a few months, she decide to either change jobs or go back to the UK. She was then offered a trip to Brazil by a man who had been an acquaintance of her family. He told her that he had purchased two tickets, but unfortunately his wife could not accompany him as planned. Teresa could not resist of free trip to Brazil and agreed.

The week in Brazil was uneventful; the weather was miserable and the hotel was in a bad area, so Teresa stayed in her room for most of the time. On 12 June 1997, they arrived back in Tenerife. As the passengers' suitcases came in, they were all searched. Nothing was found in Teresa's suitcase or in the first of her companion's. However, the police officers took the third case and her companion to a side room. Shortly afterwards Teresa, too, was taken to a room. A policeman held a gun to her head while another, with white powder on his finger, shouted 'what's this?' Teresa did not know what it was but despite her companion telling the police that she was not involved, Teresa was detained. The white powder was cocaine, and 3.8 kilos of it were found, none of it being in her case.

Teresa’s suitcase was strip-searched. She spent the night in a police cell and was taken to court the following day, where she was granted bail in the sum of £2,500. Soon after, Teresa suffered a near-fatal brain haemorrhage and spent six weeks in hospital, undergoing two operations. Under her bail conditions Teresa could not leave Tenerife and unable to work, her family sent her as much money as they could afford.

The case was heard in March 1998, the trial only lasting about 1½ hours. Teresa's co-defendant repeated that he alone was responsible and that Teresa only went along for a holiday. Despite the fact that no drugs were found in her possession, Teresa was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. The same sentence was handed down to her companion, who had two previous convictions. Teresa's lawyer appealed and she was released to live on 'conditional liberty' in Tenerife.

In February 2000, Teresa received a letter from the Spanish Ambassador in London which appeared to confirm that the case against her had been closed. It was only when police records were checked as part of a job application that she found out that her conviction still stands.

In June 2003, three police officers arrived at the family home with an international arrest warrant for Teresa and she was extradited to Spain on 20 October 2005 to serve her sentence.

Fair Trial Issues

1. At the trial Teresa was asked a total of 5 questions and after 1 ½ hours was told that she could leave. She assumed that she was there as a witness. No interpreter was present and she could not understand the proceedings.
2. Her conviction was based on entries in her personal diary (written in English), which had been confiscated from her handbag upon her arrest. Before the trial, the court provided its own partial and unofficial 'translation', which was later shown to be largely inaccurate. An official translation of the diary, carried out by a qualified translator, was also supplied to the court prior to trial, yet this was ruled inadmissible for being out of time. This was not questioned by the higher court, which followed the 1st instance decision in full.
3. The subsidiary cause for conviction was a presumption of guilt by association: that the reason given by her and her travel companion for accompanying him to Brazil was not credible