A PRECIOUS phone call lasting just a few minutes was the best Christmas present Fiona Fulton could have hoped for this year.
The Christian missionary, incarcerated in a Gambian police station and separated from her family, was allowed to speak to a relative in the UK from her dark, dirty cell, while being watched by police guards.
The 46-year-old mother of three, whose
husband David is a chaplain in the Gambian army, had to hold back tears as she told her husband's cousin she was "comfortable" in the station, where she has been held for almost a month.
David, originally from Troon, Ayrshire, spent Christmas Day in solitary confinement in a high-security prison in the Gambia, where he has been refusing food for fear of being poisoned.
The couple are facing up to a year in jail or a heavy fine after they were arrested on November 29 and accused of spreading "hatred against the government" through e-mails describing their mission work. They have still not been told the precise nature of the remarks that offended the authorities.
But there may be more to this couple than meets the eye: according to a Christian publication called Prison Fellowship International, David is a convicted armed robber who reformed his ways and found God after an encounter with a Christian prison visitor called Fiona, who later became his wife.
In 1996, after having two children, David and Fiona decided to move to the Gambia to work as missionaries, and David joined the Gambian army as a chaplain. They later adopted a local girl, Elizabeth, now two.
The couple considered the Gambia as their second home and sent e-mails to their many supporters describing the country and the people they met and converted to Christianity.
Living in Serrekunda, a town close to the capital, Banjul, they enjoyed the country's pace of life and the friendliness of their colleagues.
Although the Gambia is a secular country, 90% of its inhabitants are Muslim. While it is legal to preach Christianity, the Fultons were arrested for sedition, a crime taken very seriously by the country's government, which has strict controls on freedom of speech.
The sedition occurred in an e-mail sent out by the Fultons and given to the police by a former Gambian friend. David and Fiona were both arrested, along with their two-year-old daughter, although she was later released into the care of a friend.
David Fulton, 60, was taken to a small cell in high-security Mile Two Prison, where he was kept in solitary confinement for a month, during which his health deteriorated. Fiona, 45, was held in a police station miles away from him in Banjul.
The couple appeared in court on Christmas Eve to plead guilty to sedition and issue an apology to the president and people of the Gambia, admitting they "really regret" what they had done and promising not to talk badly of the Gambia after their release.
Alistair Fulton, a cousin of David's who spoke to Fiona last week, said they were strong but the ordeal was taking its toll.
He said: "Our information is very sketchy because Fiona is being overheard all the time. She says she is comfortable, but I know it isn't a pleasant place at all.
"They are strong people, but this will be over a month that they have been in custody and it's taking its toll on them physically and mentally. There are people around the world praying for them."
Alistair, who visited his cousin in the Gambia with his wife four years ago, saw the police station where Fiona is being held while he was out there.
He said: "Dave was visiting an acquaintance who had been arrested and held in the station for a minor offence and he took in food and medication for him. I happened to be with him at the time, so I went into the station with him.
"This is typical of both Dave and Fiona's concern for the people of the Gambia. They are practising Christians and try to show the love of the Lord Jesus to those around them in many practical ways."
Alistair added that the couple had endured a hard Christmas. He said: "Fiona was allowed to see Elizabeth on Christmas Day, and they had a few presents in the station. She sees her daughter most days as she is brought in by a friend.
"Dave will have been in solitary confinement, but we have heard that a warrant was passed on Christmas Eve to allow him to have visitors. No visitors are allowed on public holidays or weekends, so Monday will be the first day he sees somebody."
Christmas was also hard for the Fultons' family in the UK, including David's 87-year-old mother who lives in Troon. Alistair said: "We have tried to stay strong by staying in phone contact with each other."
One of the most difficult aspects for relatives of the Fultons has been the remoteness of their relatives as they await their fate. Alistair outlined the difficulty of getting information about them.
"The Foreign Office over here and the British High Commission in the Gambia have helped us keep in contact with them, but they can't interfere with the legal situation or the law of the land," he said.
"They have done what they can, and the deputy high commissioner can give us information about David. He has been to see him once a week, but we simply get told that David is OK, so we have to make something of that. He's been in solitary confinement in a very small cell, that's what we believe."
But Alistair said that despite the lack of information, none of them was planning to go to the Gambia.
"My name is Fulton as well so I just don't think it would be safe," he said. "We haven't been advised not to go there, but the feeling is that people who know African countries would suggest it's not the sensible thing until we know what's going to happen.
"We can only hope that they get off with a reasonable fine and they are able to pay it and get back to the UK. I would think that they would want to be back in the UK rather than continue to live in the Gambia, but we've not spoken about that at the moment. It's been their home for so long."
The Gambia, Africa's smallest mainland nation, is a former Commonwealth country that gained independence in 1965.
President Yahya Jammeh came to power in a bloodless military coup in 1994, and during his rule the country has been accused of human rights abuses, including restricting freedom of speech.
In 2004, a reporter who had been critical of the Jammeh government was mysteriously killed, and the government was also accused of killing 13 people who protested against the death of a student in the country.
The Fultons' sedition is alleged to have been contained in one of the e-mails they regularly send to supporters. The e-mails, which friends have described as sardonic but often touching, include details of David's latest work on a ministry on the river, which involves a hard 10-day trip upriver every month.
"We have not had any sight or any information about which documents are involved but we believe it's the e-mails," said Alistair. "Those of us who support them receive them regularly, and there really isn't anything seditious.
"It's just telling us how it's going, reporting about their life in the Gambia, nothing unusual. They are honest, hard-working people who go out of their way to help others."
Even members of the British High Commission in the Gambia have struggled to get hold of the seditious e-mails since the couple pleaded guilty last week.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said they were struggling to help the couple. "We don't yet have any sufficient details on the nature of the charges, which we are pursuing with the authorities as a matter of emergency," she said.
"It all depends on how quickly we can get information from our posts in the Gambia, but we can't at any point speculate on the likely outcome of the case."
Pastor Martin Speed, of the Westhoughton Pentecostal Church in Bolton, which supports the Fultons, agreed that it had been difficult to find out what was going on.
He said: "We get most of our information from the press, but nobody has spoken to David for almost a month so we cannot know for certain how he is doing.
"We are praying for him along with people from all over the world. We can only hope for their safe return.
"We have also written to our local MPs to make sure as many people as possible know about Dave and Fiona's fate, and try to help them."
The Fultons will reappear before magistrates on Tuesday, either to be fined or sentenced to up to a year in prison.
Alistair said: "We are trying to be prepared for whatever happens, and supporters of Dave and Fiona have given substantial gifts towards paying any fine they might receive, but we just don't know how much it's going to be, as it includes legal costs.
"It has been suggested that they are likely to place a heavy court fine and it has to be paid on the day. We are trying to organise that to make sure they can come home as soon as possible."
The full article contains 1605 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
