A 19 year-old film student from New York has spent at least a week in a Russian jail facing drug charges after she was arrested with medical marijuana while visiting Saint Petersburg with her mother.
Audrey Lorber, from Staten Island, was arrested as she tried to fly out of Pulkovo Airport when Russian border agents allegedly found about 19 grams of marijuana on her, according to a statement posted by St. Petersburg's Moskovsky district court.
She was charged with drug possession and since then had been awaiting court hearings in a detention facility in St. Petersburg. Investigators said Lorber had pleaded guilty to the charges. It was unclear if she had a lawyer. Russia has harsh drug laws, which police enforce aggressively and carry long prison sentences. The offense that Lorber is charged with—Article 228 of Russia’s criminal code – is nicknamed “the people’s charge” because it is so frequently used to jail people.ABC News chronicled another American's 2-year jail odyssey in the Russian system on what he says were trumped-up drug charges.
Lorber now studies at Pace University while also working at a restaurant, according to her Facebook profile.
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