(18 Jul 2007)
1. Wide of court building
2. Medium of Ghanaian flag flying outside court building
3. Wide of journalists waiting outside the courtroom
4. Press officer for the British High Commission, Gary Nicholls talking on mobile phone
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gary Nichols, Press officer for the British High Commission:
"And what has happened is they've been remanded back into the custody of the narcotics bureau and the prosecution asked for a one week stay on the start of the trial so that they can finish off their investigations."
6. British girls leaving court and getting into car, surrounded by media
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gary Nichols, Press officer for the British High Commission:
"They've been charged provisional charges which is one count possession, one count attempting to export but as I say they are provisional charges and we won't know for definite what the final charge will be until 26th July when the trial begins."
8. Van containing two British girls reversing
9. Close-up of car registration plate, zoom out to car driving past
10. Close-up of sign outside court building
STORYLINE:
Two teenage British girls accused of attempting to smuggle 600 thousand US dollars worth of cocaine appeared in a Ghana court on Wednesday with the judge ruling that their trial would start on the 26th of July at a juvenile court.
The pair, both 16-year-old students from London, were detained on the 2nd of July at the airport in the West African nation's capital.
Customs officials discovered the cocaine hidden in laptop cases as the two were preparing to return to Britain.
The girls were provisionally charged with drug possession and drug trafficking, crimes that carry 10 year prison terms in Ghana.
Lead prosecutor Evelyn Keelson said she had asked for more time for investigators to gather evidence and probe the case.
The judge granted the request and ordered the case be transferred to a juvenile court.
It was unclear what impact the move would have on possible sentences, but Keelson said it meant the girls would carry out their sentences in a juvenile detention centre rather than a jail if found guilty.
The girls appeared in the High Court for about 45 minutes, accompanied by Ghanaian lawyers and relatives, said Gary Nichols, head of Public Affairs at the British High Commission.
"They've been remanded back into the custody of the narcotics bureau and the prosecution asked for a one week stay on the start of the trial so that they can finish off their investigations," said Nichols outside the court.
"We won't know for definite what the final charge will be until 26th July when the trial begins," he added.
Keelson meanwhile said the upcoming trial would not be open to the public.
West Africa has become a new drug trafficking route; cocaine, originating mostly in Colombia, is brought on small planes and dropped off on islands off the West African coast, and then distributed to couriers who carry it on to Europe.
British and Ghanaian officials began working together last year after the number of drug-related arrests at London airports from flights from West Africa began to soar.

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