2 YEARS HARD LABOUR

St. Lucia Sentence For Brampton Women

Two Brampton-area women are serving two years of hard labour in a St.
Lucia prison after being busted for smuggling cocaine in the false
sides of their suitcases. Charlene Hanson, 30, and Antonette Fedele,
36, pleaded guilty in court on the Caribbean island on Wednesday on
charges of attempting to export and possession of illegal drugs.

5 KILOS OF COKE

Police and Canadian diplomats said the friends were arrested Sunday
after five kilos of cocaine, worth about $250,000, were found sewn in
the linings of two suitcases as the women boarded a flight to Canada.

"The condition here is pretty bad," Hanson said from jail on Tuesday.
"It is awful. We have been given very little food."

Officials said Fedele is a mother of three.

St. Lucian lawyer Daarsrean Greene, who represented the women, said
they were each ordered to pay a $25,800 fine or serve two years of
hard labour.

"Hard labour is hard labour," Greene said from St. Lucia yesterday.
"They will have to work all day in the hot sun."

He said the women, who were transferred yesterday to a
maximum-security prison, have been receiving little food and slept on
a bench for five days.

'TREATED QUITE INHUMANE'

"I am concerned about their health," Greene said. "They were treated
quite inhumane by the police."

Greene said he's filed several complaints over the
treatment.

"Police here are not paid well and they don't really care about
foreigners," he said.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said from Ottawa that
Canadian diplomats have been in touch with the women, who were given a
list of lawyers.

"People are repeatedly warned not to bring back presents or luggage
for anyone," Doiron said. "They are told never to leave their luggage
unattended."

Brampton resident Amy Dunk said she talked to her friend Hanson from
jail on Wednesday.

"She was crying and very hysterical," Dunk said. "She is a very
clean-cut girl who would never do something like this."

Dunk said Hanson's family and friends are trying to raise the money
for her release.