TRIAL BEGINS FOR BRITISH ACADEMIC ON DRUGS CHARGES

A LEADING British novelist and anthropologist goes on trial in Bolivia today
charged with drug-trafficking and facing a jail sentence of up to 25 years.

The case begins just days after the La Paz government commissioned Dr Alison
Spedding to undertake a research project from within prison into the local
culture of the Aymara Indians.

Arrested on 30 March with two kilos of marijuana after a tip-off by a police
informer, Dr Spedding has spent the last six months in La Paz's women's
jail. At the time, she was preparing to fly home to discuss publication of
her latest novel, 'Money Like Water', with her publisher, HarperCoIlins.
Having unearthed the cannabis and UKP1,500 travel money, Bolivia's narcotics
police accused the university lecturer of selling cannabis to her students,
and took into custody two Aymaran Indians, Flora, and her daughter, Miriam,
whom Dr Spedding is supporting through university.

The academic now faces three charges of drug-trafficking, inducement to
consumption and criminal association.

An inveterate traveller, the flamboyant anthropologist settled in Bolivia
nine years ago, taking up a post as lecturer at San Andres University. In
1993, she wrote 'Wachu Wachu', a study of the cultivation of coca and its
role in the Andean identity. Following the collapse of the tin market in the
late 1970s - tin is Bolivia's principal export - many workers took to
growing and selling coca to support themselves.

However, in an effort to win international aid, the previous government
began stamping out coca production and introduced law 1,008, for which the
possession of any drug carries a sentence of 25 years.

Dr Spedding has been vocal in supporting the coca farmers, who believe the
destruction of coca fields will force them off their land and into ruin.

Initially, her arrest was thought to be linked to her support of the Aymara
Indians so the latest anthropological research commission by the government
came as something of a surprise to her mother, Maureen Raybauld, who visited
her daughter in jail in July.

"She was astonished, but pleased, because after her arrest they froze her
bank accounts. Now they are paying her $4,000 for her work, which means she
can keep Flora and Miriam quite comfortably and put something aside for
legal fees."

Dr Spedding has already received $1,300 in advance and managed to hide $300
of it among her belongings in jail to supplement her meagre 30 US cents
dally living allowance.

"It's bizarre,' says Mrs Raybauld. "Of course she won't be able to do the
research herself, but her students will do the legwork in the mountains, and
she'll write it up in jail."

Despite the prison's efforts to instil feminine virtues into the prisoners,
in cooking for the officers and playing netball, Dr Spedding has
successfully continued teaching her students. "Her students have been very
supportive," says her mother. "Every Thursday a group of students comes
along for their lecture and every other day of the week they are popping in
and out with their theses to be marked."

In return, they buy her and Flora and Miriam food to supplement the piece of
bread, mug of tea and bowl of soup and potatoes, which make up the daily
rations.

Born in Belper, Derbyshire, the 36-year-old novelist first studied social
anthropology at King's College, Cambridge, before travelling in Latin
America and China and returning for a doctorate at the London School of
Economics.

Realistically, Dr Spedding says she expects to be sentenced to a six-year
jail-term, three of which she will have to serve in prison. Academics
campaigning for her release will hope it is less, so that she may continue
in her quest to preserve the Aymaran culture.

"She knew the laws, she broke them and is taking the consequences," says Mrs
Raybould, "but Bolivia is so poor. it needs education and someone like
Alison to preserve the Indian culture."

Checked-by: Don Beck