By Vir B. Lumicao
 |
| Welba was ordered freed at West Kowloon Court |
A Filipino maid jailed for six months after taking delivery
of an air parcel containing cocaine was freed by a magistrate on Mar 31 after
prosecution lawyers withdrew the charge against her for insufficiency of
evidence.
Estrella G. Welba, a 39-year-old single mother, was ordered
freed by Magistrate So Wai-Tak at West Kowloon court. She had pleaded not
guilty to drug trafficking.
Freedom came unexpectedly for the Filipina, as she was due
to return to court on Apr 10 before the transfer of her case to the High Court
Welba told The SUN she was surprised when a correctional
officer at Tai Lam Centre for Women in Tuen Mun told her on Friday morning to
dress up and attend an urgent court hearing.
“I had been praying that I would be acquitted because I am
innocent of the charge,” Welba said.
She said she drew strength from prison chaplain Father John
Wotherspoon, an Australian priest who has been waging a campaign to gain
freedom for women jailed for unwittingly carrying dangerous drugs for Nigerian
drug syndicates operating in Hong Kong.
“Father John kept advising me to tell the truth and be
consistent with my statements,” Welba said.
She told The SUN that she was allowed to look for a new
employer following her acquittal, but the Immigration gave her only a two-day
visa extension.
She left for Macau today, Apr 5, hoping to return to Hong
Kong and process a new work contract.
 |
| Cocaine in a bag seized from another Filipina suspect earlier |
Welba was arrested on Sept 23 last year by customs and
police operatives right after she signed a delivery receipt for the air parcel
that was delivered to her boarding house in North Point by an officer posing as
a DHL staff.
Earlier reports said she was nabbed in her employer’s flat.
The package, found to contain a substance with 478 grams of
cocaine, was sent from the Somali capital, Addis Ababa, by Welba’s former
boyfriend, a Nigerian based in Chung King Mansion in Tsimshatsui.
Welba said her relationship with the Nigerian did not last long and that she met him only three times
before she broke off because she discovered in his Facebook account that she
had a wife, also a Filipina.
She initially told an officer
that she had no idea who had sent it to her until she suddenly remembered that
after she parted with the Nigerian last May, he asked her if she could receive
a package from him that a friend would pick up later.
Welba said she agreed but did not realize she would be sent a
dangerous drug.
When she appeared at West Kowloon Court on Mar 3, she said
her duty lawyer told her that if she got convicted, she would be sentenced to
12-15 years in jail, so she prayed hard for an acquittal.
“I told myself that by telling the truth I will be
acquitted, and I had been telling that to other inmates also awaiting trial for
drug trafficking,” she said.
On Apr 2, Welba went to the Consulate to ask for help, particularly
for temporary shelter and getting a visa extension from the Immigration
Department, where she was to recover her passport.
She also requested for a plane ticket home from the social
welfare office at the Consulate but was unsuccessful.
