Ashley Oosthuizen: What know about the South African serving life in a Thai prison

South Africans have been gripped by the story of a 22-year-old South African woman from George who is serving a life sentence in a Thailand prison for drug smuggling.

News of the South African’s horrid fate has been widely reported on this past week after a man who claimed to have been her boyfriend at the time of her arrest, sent a lengthy statement to the George Herald claiming that Ashley Oosthuizen is not guilty of the crimes she has been accused of.

According to the publication, Oosthuizen was 19 years old when she started a job as a teacher on the island Koh Samui.

This is where she met a 32-year-old American teacher from another school on the island, Tristan Nettles.

On 15 February 2022, Nettles sent a statement to the George Herald, via Facebook, about a 22-year-old imprisoned in Thailand for crimes that he and others committed.

In the lengthy statement he explained that while he was a high school science teacher at a leading international school on the island, he made most of his money from selling party drugs to expats.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Anti-vax students arrested outside UFS following protest

Oosthuizen ended up losing her job at the Oonrak International School as a kindergarten teacher as she didn’t have the necessary qualifications for the position.

According to Nettles, work politics led to another teacher complaining about Ashley’s lack of a four-year degree, forcing the school to let her go.

This was when he offered her a job as a manager at his restaurant Hot in the Biscuit. Nettles says he taught Ashley how to run the business and even signed a large portion of the restaurant over in her name.

On 8 October 2020, Oosthuizen’s exciting island life turned into a nightmare after signing for a package on behalf of someone else.

According to Nettles, the package contained 250g of MDMA (Ecstasy) and Ashley was completely unaware of the contents of the parcel.

Before opening the restaurant, Nettles had the drug parcels mailed to the school where he worked, but after moving to the Ukraine to start his medical studies, he had to find another place to send the packages to.

Oosthuizen was arrested within 10 minutes of signing for the parcel delivered at the restaurant, and she has been in jail ever since.

According to a report by News24, Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesperson Clayson Monyela confirmed that Oosthuizen was arrested in Thailand.

Monyela also told the publication that the department, as well as the SA Embassy in Bangkok, is providing Ashley and her family in South Africa with the standard consular assistance applicable to such cases. This after Blignaut told the George Herald that the South African embassy in Thailand didn’t show much interest in her daughter’s case.

Speaking to AfriNuus, Oosthuizen’s mother, Lynn Blignaut said the only cooperation they have received from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) was to make sure that Ashley’s prison bill was paid, and arranged for them to get in touch with her.

ALSO READ: Refrigerated body parts murder suspect undergoing mental evaluation

Blignaut finally got to speak to her daughter telephonically for 15 minutes after months of no communication on Friday.

“Ashley is in excellent health because He sustains her in all ways and provides for her. We would not have been able to stand so strong every day if it wasn’t for the mercy and grace from God. We can now only wait for her next appeal,” Blignaut told the George Herald.

Oosthuizen was initially handed down the death penalty, but after an appeal, the sentence was changed to life imprisonment (25 years).

Her family has applied to appeal.

A petition to help free Oosthuizen is gaining momentum under the hashtag FreeAshley.

Ashley’s mother and father, André Oosthuizen, have asked the public not to pay any money into crowdfunding sites that were allegedly created for their daughter.

 They have opened a trust fund account where donations will be kept safe and used for the legal costs and any other costs associated with bringing their daughter back to South Africa safely.

Compiled by Xanet Scheepers