Presiding judge expected to decide whether to press charges against Michaela McCollum and Melissa Reid on Wednesday
Two women arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle cocaine worth £1.5m out of Peru are spending the night in a holding cell at a district courthouse in Lima's port district of Callao.
The presiding judge, Dilo Huaman, is expected to decide whether to press charges of drug trafficking against them on Wednesday.
The district attorney, Juan Rosas, who prepared the charges against them in a hearing on Tuesday, refused to disclose details before the documents were reviewed by the judge, who is expected to order the detention of Michaela McCollum and Melissa Reid, both 20. A source in Callao's district attorney's office said it was "highly unlikely" that bail would be granted.
Amid chaotic scenes and a heavy press presence, the women were taken handcuffed from the public prosecutor's office to the courthouse.
Reid's father, William, and McCollum's brother, Keith, were both prevented from entering the court building, according to Peter Madden, the prominent Northern Irish lawyer hired by McCollum's family.
Reid, from Glasgow, and McCollum, from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, were "confused and frightened" and being held in "very poor and dirty conditions", Madden told the Guardian.
"The holding cells had thin mattress on the floor and were full of flies," he said, adding that the women had not been given any food since they were taken handcuffed from the anti-drugs police headquarters just after dawn on Tuesday morning.
Madden said he feared the authorities wanted to "break their spirits so they would plead guilty".
He claims both women were acting under duress and had been threatened at gunpoint in Ibiza, where both had been working since early June. He said they were forced to travel to Peru to smuggle cocaine in their luggage.
He said they denied all allegations of drug trafficking.
