{"id":3255,"date":"2022-06-29T04:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T04:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2022-08-18T04:59:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T04:59:04","slug":"hell-in-paradise-a-wealthy-british-hotelier-could-face-up-to-20-years-in-an-african-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=3255","title":{"rendered":"Hell In Paradise: A Wealthy British Hotelier Could Face Up To 20 Years In An African Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Darko Manevski<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wealthy British hotelier and his wife are being held in a \u2018hell hole\u2019 prison after being charged with money laundering by cops on the paradise island of Zanzibar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Wood, 51, was jailed on the island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa after he was arrested with Francesca Scalfari, 45, just over two weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His family said police shaved his head when he was taken into custody and then placed him in a cell with 200 other dangerous inmates, including murderers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also said the pair had been denied basic needs \u2013 including access to water \u2013 and relatives hadn\u2019t been allowed into the jail to see them on several occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those close to the couple claim their arrest is linked to lawsuits brought against them by ex-investors in their hotel, The Sharazad Boutique, dating back to 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as these matters were later settled in favor of Simon and Francesca, they\u2019re now \u201cat a loss\u201d to explain why new criminal charges arose earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under local laws, prisoners can be kept in jail for eight months without trial, and Simon\u2019s mum, Christine Wood, from Preston, Lancs, says she\u2019s \u201cconcerned\u201d for his welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: \u201cI am very concerned for my son Simon and his Italian wife Francesca, who are starting their third week of imprisonment in Zanzibar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow they have been accused of money laundering but are at a loss to know why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor them, paradise has quickly turned to hell and until the court declares them \u2018not guilty\u2019 they remain in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francesca\u2019s uncle Jim Betteridge, 62, a British ex-pat living in Tuscany, Italy, added Simon and Francesca are being kept in \u201cprimitive\u201d conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cA hell hole would be a fairly accurate description.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no food or water provided. They have to buy their water \u2013 and any food that\u2019s brought in is poked around and probed by the guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hot in there, full of mosquitos and it\u2019s not somewhere where you\u2019d want to see your worst enemy, frankly. To call it primitive would be complimentary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim explained Simon, originally from Preston, Lancs., had arrived on the beautiful island 20 years, where he met his future wife, Francesca, and had their son, Luca, 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The archipelago, which falls under the jurisdiction of Tanzania, is famed for its warm weather and soft sandy beaches \u2013 and attracts roughly 500,000 tourists a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair later decided to turn their beachside home into a 30-room boutique hotel with \u00a3200-a-night ocean view villas, a restaurant, and a swimming pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jim said after they \u201cfell out\u201d with two investors who had put money into the business, the couple had spent years fighting civil suits in the local courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cAnother Italian couple who are involved in NGOs on the mainland invested money with them and became partners, and they created the hotel together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then they fell out, many years ago now, and for three to five years, there were civil cases going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut Francesca and Simon won three civil cases against their ex-partners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim said the couple, who own multiple businesses on the island and employ roughly 60 people, believed their legal troubles were behind them a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on June 7, they were suddenly arrested by police and thrown in a local jail, where they\u2019ve been kept ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody knows how this now settled and finished civil matter has been dug up again and turned into this criminal state prosecution affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s all blown up in the last month and a half, really, when everything was well behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple made their first appearance in court yesterday (June 22) and were charged with money laundering \u2013 believed to carry a maximum penalty of 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Jim says while officials from both Italy and Britain are assisting their families, the couple are suffering due to the awful conditions in their separate jails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cThey\u2019ve both lost weight and are evidently uncomfortable and upset, obviously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe jail is ramshackle, to put it mildly. Simon is in a series of rooms with 200 convicted prisoners and is sleeping on the floor on a mattress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrancesca is in a room with about 20 people. They had no water for two days and two nights \u2013 and you can only imagine what that would do for one person, let alone 20.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim insists the pair could prove their innocence but says this is hard to achieve as they\u2019re currently unable to get bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cWere they allowed out, they would be able to prove their innocence in no time at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut from inside they can\u2019t, so they\u2019re frustrated. It\u2019s not a nice thing to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s understood the president of Zanzibar, Hussein Mwinyi, will attend a local investment forum today (June 23), where he could receive criticism for the couple\u2019s detainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office spokesperson confirmed they were assisting a British national currently jailed in Tanzania but declined to give further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said: \u201cWe are supporting a British National detained in Tanzania and are in contact with the local authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Zenger News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Darko Manevski A wealthy British hotelier and his wife are being held in a \u2018hell hole\u2019 prison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-3255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-express","tag-africa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3257,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions\/3257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}