Guardian newspapers has announced that Alison Spedding, anthropologist and creator of the Walk In The Dark trilogy (The Road and the Hills, A Cloud over Water, The Streets of the City), has been released on bail, following two years of imprisonment on drug charges in Bolivia.

Ms Spedding was jailed in 1998 and held for an extended time without charges. In 1999 a judge ruled that 2 kg of cannabis found at her home was intended for trafficking, and she received a 10 year sentence to the Woman's Prison in La Paz, Bolivia. She was allowed to leave jail last Friday on payment of a £1,300 surety and on condition she stays in La Paz until the supreme court makes a final decision on her case.

The release follows recent reforms in the Bolivian legal system and a bail hearing on August 25.

Posted October-5-2000