The two British law graduates facing trial in Brazil for charges of fraudulent insurance claims will not have to return to prison, a lawyer claimed today.
Renato Tonini said he was confident that even if Shanti Andrews and Rebecca Turner were convicted, they would be able to serve their punishment without being sent to jail.
Miss Andrews and Miss Turner, both 23, were freed on bail on Saturday and were today staying in a hotel ahead of a court appearance in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.
Mr Tonini said the women, both University of Sussex law graduates on a nine-month journey around the world, will have the charge of attempted insurance fraud read to them in English during the hearing.
Speaking from Rio de Janeiro, Mr Tonini said: 'I'm very confident that they will not be going back to prison. Even if they are convicted, I think a fine would solve the problem.
'The next step is the court appearance on Wednesday, where someone will read the charge to them in English.'
Mr Tonini said he hoped a judgment would be made on the merit of the charge in up to four weeks' time.
In the meantime, the lawyer said the women had voluntarily surrendered their passports to the Brazilian authorities to show they have no intention of fleeing.
The pair are alleged to have told police in the South American country that belongings totalling £1,000 had been stolen during a bus journey.
The pair were taken into custody at dawn last Monday after officers from a specialist tourist support unit apparently became suspicious that they had waited several days before reporting to police.
The website of Rio de Janeiro state's civil police said the pair had tried to register a robbery, alleging they had been attacked.
A subsequent search of their lodgings in Copacabana allegedly uncovered some of the belongings that they had originally told officers had been stolen.
After being freed from custody on Saturday, the women spoke of their ordeal, surrounded by drug traffickers, robbers and murderers before being moved to a second jail they described as entering 'the gates of hell'.
Describing the first jail, Miss Turner told the Mail on Sunday yesterday: 'It was a living nightmare. It was the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me in my life.
'They only spoke Portuguese and we only spoke English and there were moments when we wondered if we would ever get out of there.
'The centre had no cells, just five or six open rooms, each measuring about 12ft by 10ft and 25 women crammed into each.
'It was so cramped we slept in the corridor but it was still so tight that at night you had to lie on your side. Everyone slept on the concrete floor. They just gave us a thin blanket each.'
Miss Andrews' father Alan is said to have used part of his life savings to travel to Brazil to help gain their freedom.
Miss Andrews' mother, Simone Headley, who lives in Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, told earlier this week how the two friends were traumatised by their ordeal and that it had been a 'misunderstanding'.
Daily Mail
