A Serbian teacher caught up in a lengthy legal battle with Government has been jailed for three months apparently for failing to pay rent to a private landlady.Dragana Damljanovic is in the Co-Ed Facility at Ferry Reach, according to charity campaigner Sheelagh Cooper, who claims the sentence imposed on the social studies teacher was too harsh.Ms Cooper shared an e-mail with The Royal Gazette sent to her by Ms Damljanovic on December 10, shortly after a Magistrates’ Court hearing on the rent issue at which she represented herself.She wrote she’d been given until 2.30pm that day to pay her landlady who had sued her for non-payment but did not have sufficient funds in her account until a cheque had cleared so was facing 90 days in prison.It is understood she initially owed $410 but the figure spiralled to almost $2,000 with the landlady’s legal costs.“I have been treated by the courts so badly and bullied by everybody here in Bermuda, that I do not even care any more,” Ms Damljanovic wrote to Ms Cooper. “I promised myself I will not be arrested any more and imprisoned...as I did nothing illegal and I breached no law. I am sick of being treated like this.”The teacher who was dismissed from Sandys Secondary Middle School in 2009 and has since issued a series of legal claims against the Ministry of Education (MoE) wrote in an earlier e-mail to Ms Cooper that she was “quite destitute” due to Government’s treatment of her.She said she’d been ordered by the Department of Immigration to leave the Island by December 12 but refused because of a fresh legal bid. “I might get arrested, therefore, very soon,” she wrote.Ms Cooper, from the Coalition for the Protection of Children, said Ms Damljanovic told her she went home after the civil court hearing, where she was arrested later that day.“To me, this underscores the need to review this policy of using the prison as a debtors’ jail,” said Ms Cooper. “This is beyond imagination that somebody could be sentenced to 90 days for an already disputed rental arrears.“Of course, she still owes this money when she gets out. Essentially, this means the judiciary is being used as an arm of the creditor. I’m going to try to get her a lawyer and I’m sure she can appeal it.”Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner did not respond to a request for information about the case and it wasn’t possible to reach Ms Damljanovic at the Co-Ed facility or the landlady.A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “The Ministry of Justice does not comment on individual cases or sentences imposed by the courts.”Ms Damljanovic filed her latest legal claim against the MoE on November 12, citing violation of her human rights and terms of employment. She filed a 78-page supporting affidavit on December 7.The Attorney General’s Chambers are representing the Ministry but the case has yet to be given a Supreme Court hearing date.Ms Damljanovic was imprisoned for a day-and-a-half in September after Government issued an unlawful deportation order that was later quashed by a judge.She came here in February 2009 to work at Sandys and was later dismissed. She challenged the decision and won a Supreme Court order plus costs in her favour. Ms Damljanovic, who has not worked since 2009, told Ms Cooper in one e-mail: “The Immigration Department did not stop persecuting me, so I will soon be in a lot of trouble.”An Immigration spokesman wouldn’t reveal whether she would be deported after her sentence. “We don’t comment on individual immigration cases”