Mom worries over students' Brazil arrest

FRANT, England, July 29 (UPI) -- Two British law school graduates arrested in Brazil for allegedly making false robbery claims are terrified, the mother of one of them says.

Brazilian police say the women, Shanti Andrews and Rebecca Turner, both 23, allegedly told authorities they had been robbed on a tourist bus but officers said they found the supposedly stolen items at the women's Rio de Janeiro youth hostel room. Police accused the pair of engaging in an insurance scam.

Andrews' mother, Simone Headley of Frant, England, told Wednesday's Daily Mail it's all a terrifying misunderstanding.

"We are at the mercy of the Brazilian legal system and I think they just make it up as they go along," she said. "We just don't know what we're in for to be honest. It's very distressing. I managed to speak to Shanti yesterday and she was devastated and very frightened. She and Rebecca were sharing a cell in police custody but they are really worried about being separated."

Sergio Ricardo da Rocha Pita, a lawyer for the pair, told a Brazilian newspaper the arrests were indeed a misunderstanding over what the women claimed had been taken from them, the Daily Mail said.