Three weeks after 22-year-old Cassandra Sainsbury was arrested at Bogota’s international airport in Colombia for carrying 18 different packages of cocaine, her newly-appointment lawyer has spoken publicly.
Speaking to ABC News, Cassie’s Colombian-based lawyer, Orlando Herra, said his client was “very traumatised” about being held in prison.
She was arrested when airport officials found 5.8 kilograms of cocaine hidden in packages inside her luggage.
The former personal trainer, from Adelaide, said she had bought the packages off a tour guide, thinking they contained headphones - which she intended to give friends and family as a gift from her travels.
Images obtained by 7 News show Cassie's last hours of freedom as she left her Bogota hotel with the luggage in which the drugs were found.
Herra said Cassie now faces an impossible choice: admit guilt in order to face less jail time, or plead not guilty.
If she's found guilty, she could face between eight and 20 years behind bars.
"But if we can get a deal with prosecutors, we could avoid drug trafficking charges and instead get complicity or something where she had a guilty act of not reviewing her luggage," he said.
"We could get a deal of a minimum of four years."
By admitting complicity, Cassie's lawyer says her case could be ruled in 90 days - instead of the year to a year-and-a-half it may take to bring her case to trial if she argues her innocence.
Pleading complicity could also mean Cassie could be eligible for parole and even "house arrest", which could be possibly completed in Australia.
Herra agreed that accepting punishment would be difficult for Cassie if she believes she is innocent.
"If one is convinced they are innocent, it's hard to say I accept this punishment, even if it's not that much," he said.
"But in terms of convenience, I would suggest we go for the shorter process and get a small punishment and learn the lesson not to trust strangers.
"With that, she can continue her life, especially if we take into account she is young and inexperienced in these things."
The revelations from Cassandra's lawyer come as a series of cryptic social media posts shared by Cassie in the lead-up to her ill-fated trip have been made public.
Listen to Mamamia Out Loud dissect the cracks in the story. (post continues after audio)
Cassie had made a series of international trips in the six months leading up to her arrest, with her travels documented on her Instagram account.
In one now-deleted post shared on January 10, Cassie wrote "50 days until everything changes".
Her 'countdown' ended in early March, and later the same month she shared posts of her travels to China and Los Angeles. It's believed she arrived on Bogota on April 3.
Just five days later - and four day before she was arrested - Cassie shared an image of a Colombian sunset with the caption, "Can't complain about an all expenses paid work trip, in which (sic) is mainly holiday very little work.
"It's the simple things that are the true beauty in the world."
Top Comments
They don't often let people serve house arrest abroad. I watched an episode of banged up abroad a couple of weeks ago on abc2 and it was a Canadian woman with a drug history who was held hostage and raped then forced to wear a fake baby belly stuffed with drugs to take back to Canada if she wanted to live. She was stopped and the drugs found. The men fled and she couldn't prove her claims about them so was sentenced to prison time. Eventually she was released on house arrest and wanted to return to Canada but they wouldn't let her so she lives in bogota in a tiny house with an ankle monitor on. It's never sure she will do house arrest in Australia and this is just one example of it not happening. She owed money, her family can't get the story of what she's doing with her life clear let alone why she was there and it's well known that if you are a successful drug mule, it can earn you a lot of money. Sounds like desperation to me
The hotel manager said she didn't take any interest in doing anything outside the hotel. She was booked in for a week. No sightseeing, nothing.