Leslie (53) Received a Life Sentence for Attempted Smuggling in Egypt, but Was Released After 20 Years: “My Body Was Destroyed There by the Stress”

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“The Dutchman next to me said: ‘Leslie, we’ve been given a life sentence.’ Then I fainted.” Due to a huge debt burden, Leslie Maras (53) from Kontich, near Antwerp, boarded a plane to Egypt in 2006 with cocaine pellets in his stomach. However, his smuggling attempt was intercepted, after which a period of 20 years of imprisonment began for him. We talk to him about why he made that smuggling attempt, about the physical hardship in the Egyptian c…