ARCHIVED - Pregnant Scottish woman jailed in Spain for not paying a fine
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The 32-year-old Brit is seven months pregnant and will likely give birth in a Spanish jail
A young Scottish mum-to-be is sitting behind bars in Spain and facing the prospect of giving birth in jail for failing to pay a fine she was issued while on holiday. 32-year-old Jamielee Fielding was slapped with a 420 euro fine for drunk and disorderly behaviour during a trip to Malaga in 2021. She returned home to Livingston without paying it, but was nabbed by airport security when she visited Tenerife last August.
Despite offering to pay what she owed in cash at the airport, Jamielee was sentenced to four months in prison in Spain.
Speaking to the Scottish press from a hotel room while on weekend release from jail, she said:
"It's been unimaginable. I can't contemplate having my baby here in a foreign hospital.
"I'm looking for a miracle because right now it doesn't look like there's any way I can get back."
The young woman was issued with the two fines last year when she travelled to the Costa del Sol to identify her mother’s body, who had died suddenly while on holiday in Malaga. Jamielee admitted that she had “not been in the right frame of mind” during the ordeal and was arrested for drunken behaviour.
Realising that the fines were outstanding, police detained her once she landed back on Spanish soil on August 19 and she is now terrified that her baby will be born in prison.
"She's due on 28 November and I've pretty much been told to prepare to have her here." Ms Fielding said. "I will need to have her here because there's no way of reducing the sentence.
"I'll need to complete the full four months which take me up to 16 December, so I need to be ready to have her here."
Jamielee is currently housed in an open prison but spent the first six weeks incarcerated in the notorious high-security De Tenerife el Rosario prison in Santa Cruz, which she described as a “living hell.”
Back in the UK, local MPs are petitioning for the woman’s release, describing her treatment as “disgusting.” Livingston MP Hannah Bardell has called for an investigation by the Foreign Office into the way British citizens are treated by the Spanish authorities.
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