Stacey Addison speaks from a Timor-Leste prison after sharing a cab with strangers.
Facebook/Help StaceyRegardless of how many times our parents told us to never talk to strangers when we were young, sharing a cab with strangers is something travelers do without giving a second thought. After hearing Stacey Addison’s story, you might want to think twice about it the next time you share the backseat with someone you don’t know. Dr. Addison, a UC Berkeley grad, had been solo backpacking around the world since January 2013. On September 5, 2014, she traveled from Indonesia into Timor-Leste (aka: East Timor, an island country formerly part of Indonesia) to renew her Indonesian visitor visa.
In Timor-Leste, Addison shared a cab with another passenger who asked to pick up a package at a local DHL office. As reported by The Oregonian, Addison was traveling with the stranger from border crossing at Batugade to the capital city of Dili. Timor-Leste’s size is approximately 15,410 kilometers (5,400 square miles), occupying the eastern half of the island Timor. Nearby islands include: Atauro, Jaco and Oecusse near Indonesia.
Along with everyone in the cab, Addison was arrested once police found methamphetamine in the package. She was held in the Dili Detention Center during four nights then released after an initial hearing with her passport detained until authorities finish further investigation. Addison was conditionally released on September 9, but still wasn’t allowed to leave the country.
Facebook/Help StaceyOn September 18, Addison posted the following message on her Facebook page:
Thank you everyone for your support and efforts to help. I have received my first reply from a congressman saying he cannot help me, but am hoping after they receive enough letters someone will find a way. It really, really means a lot to know people are out there trying to help me. One more request… To email the US Embassy here in Dili. Their address is ConsDili@state.gov. For those of you seeing his for the first time, the backstory is below.
PLEASE HELP! I was arrested in Timor Leste and held in jail for five days. After the preliminary hearing the judge determined there was enough evidence to warrant further investigation and ordered that my passport be held until the case is resolved. I have been informed the investigation alone is likely to take at least one year. I took a shared car from the border to the capital city of Dili. Another passenger in the car asked to pick up a package from DHL. The parcel contained methamphetamine and everyone in the car was arrested. My bags were searched, my body was searched, all medications I am carrying were tested, and my urine was tested. Everything was negative but I was still arrested for drug trafficking. The man who picked up the package has testified he did not know me before we shared a ride to Dili, yet I am still not permitted to leave the country.
On the same day, Facebook page Help Stacey was created to keep the public updated on her status. Addison has also been conducting Skype interviews with various media publications to garner support and to spread her message.
She even posted this message along with a video, “This is me being taken back to jail after the first day of the initial hearing. I am under the pink sarong.”
Explaining to followers of what being in jail in Southeast Asia feels like, Addison posted:
The conditions were very basic – I shared a cell with up to 12 other women and we slept on blankets on the floor. We were fed three meals a day. Most of the guards were actually kind, although there were a couple of bad apples that engaged in casual cruelty (like waking everyone up multiple times during the night). It was different than I expected jail to be. I have been traveling in the developing world on a budget for eighteen months – I have stayed in dirtier places with more disgusting bathrooms and less comfortable sleeping arrangements.
But it is not the living conditions that made going to jail the worst experience of my life. It is the fear, the uncertainty, the lack of control of your life. It is the sound the door makes when you are locked in a cage for the first time. It is having a number written on your arm in permanent marker to identify you. It is not knowing what you are charged with and what will happen next. It is not being able to understand the language and not knowing what is going on around you. It is the hours of idleness with nothing to do except stew on your predicament. It is having to face the fact that there is a very real possibility that you might spend the rest of your life in jail for sharing a taxi.
Going to jail changed me. I used to believe that if you followed the rules and did the right thing, something like this couldn’t happen. Now I know it could happen to anyone and that the feeling of safety is an illusion. I will never feel safe in the same way again.
Addison had another court appearance on October 29th but was sent back to jail again without further explanation. After five days of solitary confinement, it is still unknown when Addison will finally be released.
Facebook/Help StaceyOn November 4, Addison’s mother Bernadette Kero expressed a birthday wish for her daughter and posted on Facebook:
I was able to receive two short notes from Stacey via the Embassy. She has been moved to the Women’s Unit and now has 2 cellmates, both of whom speak some English. She can receive one hour visits, twice a week in addition to visits from her lawyer and U.S. Embassy. Friends she had made in Dili are coordinating in order to maximize her limited visitation time. She has a mattress now and can go outside for 2 hours a day. There are 17 women in the Unit and one baby, 18 months old. She wrote, “I spent my birthday at the clinic being treated for an abscess, most of the doctors study in Cuba so luckily for me, speak Spanish.” She tells me the prison staff is friendly and have been kind to her of which I am grateful.
Addison has been repeating that this isn’t how she imagined to have spent her trip of a lifetime. We send our best to her and warn fellow travelers to please think twice before sharing a cab with strangers in foreign countries.
