Two British teenagers caught trying to smuggle cocaine out of Ghana had their sentencing delayed today.
Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya, both 16 and from London, are now due to learn their fate on January 9.
The girls face up to three years in jail after being found guilty at a hearing in a closed juvenile court last month.
The court decided it needed more time to consider a social services report on the girls, the prosecution lawyer, Evelyn Keelson, told reporters.
The pair were arrested in July at Accra's Kotoka airport when officers found them carrying 13lb (6kg) of cocaine in two laptop computer bags. Lawyers for the girls said their families were "very deeply disappointed about the verdict". They are expected to lodge an appeal.
If jailed the girls would be placed in a youth detention facility. It is unlikely they would return to the UK to serve their sentence because there is no transfer agreement between the two countries.
The pair have denied intending to smuggle drugs. They claimed they were not aware that the cocaine - said to be worth about £300,000 - was in their luggage.
Ghana's Narcotics Control Board said the girls were being paid £3,000 each to carry the bags on a flight to Britain.
Officers also said the girls' accommodation and food in Ghana, and their airline tickets, had been paid for.
West Africa is fast becoming a major transit point for drugs heading to Europe. Cocaine, mostly from Colombia, is taken on small planes and dropped on to islands off the little-policed Atlantic Ocean coast, then distributed to couriers.
British and Ghanaian officials began collaborating last year after a surge in the number of drug-related arrests at London airports linked to west African flights.
Source: Guardian
