Pregnant British Woman Sentenced to Life in Laos Drug Case

Samantha Orobator sentenced to life in Laos
Samantha Orobator, a pregnant British woman, was sentenced to life in prison in Laos on Wednesday for drugs trafficking, a British embassy spokesman said.

A panel of judges found the 20-year-old guilty of trafficking 1.5lbs of heroin last August, when she was caught trying to board a plane to Thailand, the spokesman said.

"It's a life sentence," he said.


But Thongloun Sisoulith, the Laos deputy prime minister, assured Bill Rammell, the Foreign Office Minister, during a meeting in London last month that a pregnant woman would not receive the death sentence, according to Mr Rammell.

The British minister added that if Miss Orobator were to be convicted, authorities had said she could serve her sentence in Britain under a newly signed prisoner transfer agreement.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/laos/5435683/Samantha-Orobator-sentenced-to-life-in-Laos.html

Drug trafficking in Laos via Thailand? She must have been high to do that.

or may have been coerced, by someone, or by her situation, financial condition. Or maybe just greed and stupidity. Dunno.

Anyway, yeah, not a good area to do that kind of business. Not without "connections".

I just see one more casualty (or two) in the War on Drugs.

Society will not benefit from her spending the rest of her life behind bars.

:hi:

many foreign countries won't. You do the crime, you do the time. And in many countries, the penalties are well known.

For anyone to traffic in SE Asia is taking a huge risk, and the punishment has been broadcast time and again. Turkey, Bali, etc., cases have been highly publicized.

I do feel sorry for her, but my compassion has limits.

I wonder if British courts, parole boards, or the PM could let her out for good behavior, or shorten her sentence, or even pardon her.

I've been following this in the British press. Sometimes stupid people believe that being pregnancy gives you immunity from both customs and prison.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/laos/5426742/Briton-Samantha-Orobator-got-pregnant-to-avoid-death-penalty-in-Laos.html

Briton Samantha Orobator 'got pregnant to avoid death penalty in Laos'
A British woman accused of drug smuggling in Laos told authorities she became pregnant in prison to avoid the death penalty, it has been reported.



The Vientiane Times quoted police as saying Ms Orobator said she impregnated herself by another prisoner in an apparent effort to escape the death sentence. Photo: PA

Samantha Orobator, 20, of south London, has been held in jail in the country since last August after she was allegedly caught with 1.5lb (680g) of heroin at Wattay airport in the capital Vientiane.

The Vientiane Times quoted police as saying Ms Orobator said she impregnated herself by another prisoner in an apparent effort to escape the death sentence.

Initially, it was reported she could face the death penalty if found guilty but it later emerged Lao law forbids the execution of pregnant prisoners.

It is not known who the father of Ms Orobator's child is. Her mother, Jane, said her daughter was not raped and the father of the child was not a Lao prison official.

Err, not to put too fine a point on it, but: how far along is she?

:eyes:

Oh dear.

Stranger things have been said to have happened....

rather than via actual sex.



Easier to arrange the transfer of some vessel than actually getting access to a male prisoner, I guess.

Because they were talking about whether they could fly her back to Britain before the third trimester or not.