Mother petitions to bring wrongfully imprisoned daughter and partner home from Kuwait

Monique Coverson and her girlfriend Larissa served in the Army for seven years and then returned to Kuwait independently as contractors. However, just before they were going to go back home, they were arrested when an ounce of a substance resembling tobacco was found in their home.

Monique Coverson and her girlfriend Larissa served in the Army for seven years and then returned to Kuwait independently as contractors. However, just before they were going to go back home, they were arrested when an ounce of a substance resembling tobacco was found in their home.

Although it was later determined that the substance was K2, which is a legal substance in Kuwait, the two remain in prison as they await their trial, and Coverson’s mother is trying desperately to get them home.

Michelle Jackson, Coverson’s mother, said that she was told the two women would be released in 30, 60, or 90 days, but that never happened. By the time they were charged, after being held uncharged for months, the one ounce of K2 had changed to one pound of marijuana, giving them a sentence of 20-25 years.

Coverson’s family believes that the two women were charged and sentenced not because of the drug charges but because of their openly homosexual lifestyles, and Jackson is determined to bring them both home.

Now, Jackson is petitioning the US government for help, writing in a Change.org petition:

I am begging the US Government to do what it can to get my daughter and her partner out of jail and back to the States. They have clearly been targeted by the Kuwaiti government for their lifestyle, and could spend half their lives in prison for it.

This whole ordeal is a nightmare. One minute, I was expecting her for Mother’s Day, and the next, I was told she was in prison. Everything I have learned has been through her friends and her lawyer, who has only called to demand more money — money for services he hasn’t rendered. Right now, I would do anything just to hear her voice.

To this day, I cannot understand how the US government has allowed them to remain in prison. They were not in possession of an illegal substance, yet their freedom and belongings have been taken away from them. They are being held captive in a foreign land for a crime they did not commit, with no help in sight.

“I know that she needs me to be strong because I’m her only hope right now,” Jackson said. “I’m her only hope. If it’s my last breath, I’m bringing my child home one way or another.”

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