Two British law graduates arrested in Brazil on suspicion of fraudulently claiming they were robbed are to admit the charge, their lawyer has said.
The former University of Sussex students Shanti Andrews and Rebecca Turner, both 23, appeared in court in Rio de Janeiro accused of attempted insurance fraud, but did not enter any pleas during the brief hearing.
Their lawyer Renato Tonini said afterwards: "They will plead guilty," adding that he hoped they would escape prison sentences.
The pair were bailed to a hotel in Rio where they will remain until they go on trial on August 17.
The two women were charged last week after allegedly telling police that belongings totalling about £1,000 were stolen during a bus journey while they were on a nine-month world tour.
Officers from a specialist tourist support unit apparently became suspicious that they had waited several days before reporting to police.
The graduates were taken into custody last Monday but freed on bail on Saturday after an appeal was successfully lodged against a judge's initial decision to refuse them bail.
Mr Tonini said Andrews, from Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and Turner, from Woolton Hill, near Newbury, Berkshire, were both "relieved" to be out of prison and remained confident they would be treated fairly by the Brazilian justice system.
They have voluntarily surrendered their passports to the Brazilian authorities to show they have no intention of fleeing the country.
The lawyer said the trial would be unlikely to last longer than a day, but the judge then had up to five days afterwards to decide on how to sentence them. Andrews' mother, Simone Headley, said last week the friends were traumatised by their ordeal, describing it as a "misunderstanding".
