EXCLUSIVE: Brit medical researcher jailed for slapping Bali immigration worker says she is being TORTURED in prison as she releases injury photos and likens guards to Khashoggi killers

  • Auj-e Taqaddas, 43, attacked an official at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport 
  • She had been handed a $4,000 (£3,100) fine after overstaying visa for 160 days 
  • She threw another tantrum as she was arrested then jailed for in Bali six months
  • She is staying in a high-security Immigration Detention Centre in the island's Jimbaran district where she is being refused any visits
  • Taqaddas, from London, sent a series of Tweets calling her jailors corrupt and showing photos of, what she claims, are torture injuries 

A British medical researcher jailed for slapping an immigration officer in Bali claims she is being tortured in the detention centre where she is serving her sentence and compares her jailors to the killers of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

In an extraordinary series of messages sent from inside the notoriously harsh lock-up where she is serving her six-month sentence, Auj-e Taqaddas posted pictures she says shows her 'torture' injuries.

The 43-year-old Londoner – jailed for slapping an immigration officer in a row a £3,100 fine for overstaying her tourist visa – claims: 'I nearly lost my life in one torture incident. They are like khoshoggi's killers (sic).'

Auj-e Taqaddas - who was jailed for six months for attacking an immigration official in Bali has posted pictures she says shows her 'torture' injuries inflicted by guards after being sentenced

Auj-e Taqaddas - who was jailed for six months for attacking an immigration official in Bali has posted pictures she says shows her 'torture' injuries inflicted by guards after being sentenced

Ms Taqaddas, whose family in the UK has reportedly disowned her, is led away by officials after her February 6 trial in Bali, where she was sentenced to six months in prison for the attack 

Ms Taqaddas, whose family in the UK has reportedly disowned her, is led away by officials after her February 6 trial in Bali, where she was sentenced to six months in prison for the attack 

Her pictures show bruising and hand marks on her arms and legs purportedly inflicted in the days after she was sentenced on February 6 and wrote: 'Please quickly arrange my exit from Indonesia as my life is not safe her.'

Taqaddas also claims British consular officials had been refused permission to visit her and accused them of siding with the Indonesian officials in blocking her right to an appeal as she made a bizarre plea for sanctuary in Russia.

She wrote: 'It looks like UK has chosen corrupt, uncivilized and ugly Indonesia/Bali as partner in crime and therefore I would like to choose civilized and beautiful Russia as my country of Residence and refuge.'

The messages were posted on a Twitter account in Taqaddas's name, which has just three followers, in the days following her conviction on February 6 for slapping an immigration officer in the face at Bali airport.

She posted a stream of messages from inside the detention centre on February 8 and February 11 including pictures of her alleged injuries before suddenly going silent, indicating that her phone has since been confiscated.

Ms Taqaddas arrived at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, heading to Singapore. She was filmed slapping an immigration official after being fined for overstaying her visa

Ms Taqaddas arrived at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, heading to Singapore. She was filmed slapping an immigration official after being fined for overstaying her visa

Taqaddas was jailed for violence against an immigration officer in an incident on July 28 last year when she was told to pay a fine of 300,000 Rupiah a day for overstaying her visa by 160 days as she tried to leave the holiday island.

Video of Taqaddas slapping the officer went viral and she was eventually arrested and brought to court on February 6 after three times failing to answer bail to appear in court.

Mail Online discovered Taqaddas had in fact been hiding in plain sight, living a solitary existence in budget hotels along the popular Kuta beach strip where she was regularly seen by residents sitting alone beside swimming pools along the seafront.

She even got into a furious row with staff in one hotel when they failed to put bottles of mineral water in her room, according to witnesses. 'Ms Taqaddas was a somewhat temperamental and bad-tempered guest,' said the hotel manager, who asked not to be named.

Taqaddas was eventually arrested in a shopping mall opposite the £16-a-night Edelweis Hotel where she was staying on February 6 and taken straight to court to be tried after a public tussle with her arresting officers.

On the day of her sentencing, an official from the prosecutor's office Waher Tarihorang denied any violence in the arrest of Taqaddas but said his officials had 'the right to take forcible action to bring her to court' after she missed earlier court dates.

The 43-year-old posted photos of what she claims are torture injuries inflicted on February 7 and says: 'I nearly lost my life in one torture incident. They are like khoshoggi's killers'

The 43-year-old posted photos of what she claims are torture injuries inflicted on February 7 and says: 'I nearly lost my life in one torture incident. They are like khoshoggi's killers'

Taqaddas is being made to serve her sentence in the high-security Immigration Detention Centre in the island's Jimbaran district where she is being refused any visits

Taqaddas is being made to serve her sentence in the high-security Immigration Detention Centre in the island's Jimbaran district where she is being refused any visits

Inmates at the detention centre (pictured) are usually only held for short periods before being deported. It has no exercise facilities and notoriously poor conditions with cramped cells

Inmates at the detention centre (pictured) are usually only held for short periods before being deported. It has no exercise facilities and notoriously poor conditions with cramped cells

A British drugs convict, who was held in immigration detention for 10 days before being deported to the UK told Mail Online: 'It's like being on Death Row only with much worse food.'

A British drugs convict, who was held in immigration detention for 10 days before being deported to the UK told Mail Online: 'It's like being on Death Row only with much worse food.'

Ms Taqaddas, whose family live in the UK, is being held at the immigration detention centre (pictured) despite being convicted of a criminal offence in Bali

Ms Taqaddas, whose family live in the UK, is being held at the immigration detention centre (pictured) despite being convicted of a criminal offence in Bali

Taqaddas, previously a radiology specialist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London before leaving the UK around eight years ago, has been disowned by her own family in London who say they are 'deeply ashamed' at her behaviour in Bali.

Unusually for someone convicted of a criminal rather than an immigration offence, Taqaddas is being made to serve her sentence in the high-security Immigration Detention Centre in the island's Jimbaran district where she is being refused any visits.

Detainees are usually only held at the centre for short periods before being deported and it has no exercise facilities and notoriously poor conditions with cramped cells, bad food, and high rates of suicide and self-harm.

A prison visitor working for a church charity who tried to visit her on Monday (Feb 18th) was told Taqaddas was a 'special case' and could only be visited with the express permission of the prosecutor, who had demanded a one-year jail term for the assault.

In one Tweet posted on February 11, Taqaddas claims she was tortured in custody on February 7 – the day after her sentencing – and posted a picture showing her apparently bruised arm, claiming her injuries were the reason she was denied consular visits.

She wrote: 'He (the prosecutor) allowed tortured on 7th Feb 2019 and he is desperately trying to hide his crime. He did not want UK high commission to take photos of my injuries.'

Taqaddas said she had been told she had only one week to appeal her sentence but was being refused any help in lodging her appeal, which if it goes ahead could ironically result in her spending months longer in custody because of Bali's slow judicial system.

Taqaddas kicks out at the men trying to arrest her in a shopping mall, in another extraordinary tantrum before her court appearance  

Taqaddas kicks out at the men trying to arrest her in a shopping mall, in another extraordinary tantrum before her court appearance  

The British medical researcher, previously a radiology specialist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, struggles against her arrest after she had allegedly failed to appear in court 

The British medical researcher, previously a radiology specialist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, struggles against her arrest after she had allegedly failed to appear in court 

Ms Taqaddas, who left the UK eight years was filmed yelling at an officer as she is arrested in a shopping mall before her trial in Indonesia 

Ms Taqaddas, who left the UK eight years was filmed yelling at an officer as she is arrested in a shopping mall before her trial in Indonesia 

She continued her rant during her appearance in the Bali courtroom, shouting and pointing as she is flanked by the men who arrested her before she was sentenced to six months in jail

She continued her rant during her appearance in the Bali courtroom, shouting and pointing as she is flanked by the men who arrested her before she was sentenced to six months in jail

'The UK high commission and consulate are refusing to come to see me as prosecutor has told them they can not see me,' she wrote. 'They both are liars. I am entitled to see whoever I want especially my embassy staff but they are making lousy excuses to delay appeal process.'

In an onslaught of angry messages, she criticises British officials, citing their efforts to secure the release of the British academic Matthew Hedges arrested for spying in the United Arab Emirates.

'UK seems to interfere in legal affairs of UAE when Mathew (sic) Hedges receives a verdict against him but UK is incapable to interfere when dirty Bali and Indonesia openly abuse my human rights. I can not take this anymore.'

Before her arrest and sentencing, Taqaddas posted scores of similar, manic messages on the same Twitter account in December and January, alleging torture and assault during her previous encounters with officials concerning her visa overstay.

She appealed for the United Nations Human Rights Commission to intervene on her behalf as well as members of the British Royal family including the Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William.

In them, she also posts pictures of apparent injuries to her arms and legs which appear to have been taken in hotel rooms she was staying in at the time.

Whatever the truth of Taqaddas's torture claims, conditions in the detention centre where she is being held are unquestionably bleak with former inmates describing appalling food, rats, and horrendous conditions in the basement cells.

One British drugs convict, who was held in immigration detention for 10 days before being deported to the UK after completing his jail term in 2017, told Mail Online: 'It's like being on Death Row only with much worse food.'

'There's graffiti on the wall about suicide and slashing your wrists,' said the convict, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'There was one woman just screaming and crying for days that she wanted to die.

'They leave bright lights on 24 hours a day. You hear screams and noises there all the time even when there's no one around. If you who's making the noise, the other prisoners will tell you it's the spirits of the people who've killed themselves there.

'It nearly drove me mad in the few days I was there. It would be a truly horrendous place for a woman who is on her own and who frankly may not be all that stable in the first place.'

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Brit woman jailed for slapping Bali immigration worker says she is being TORTURED in prison

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