Med MJ Pregnant Briton 'faces execution' for 1.5 lbs of heroin in Laos

[chillinwill]

A pregnant British woman faces death by firing squad if she is convicted of smuggling drugs at a trial in Laos, campaigners have said.

Prosecutors claim Samantha Orobator, 20, was in possession of 1.5lb (680g) of heroin when she was arrested at Wattay airport in Laos in August.

Legal charity Reprieve has called on the UK government to intervene with the Laotian authorities on her behalf.

The Foreign Office says it is "paying close attention to her welfare".

Miss Orobator, from London, has been held since her arrest at Phonthong prison in the south east Asian country. She became pregnant in the prison in December and is due to give birth in September.

In Laos, anyone caught with more than 1lb (500g) of heroin faces a mandatory death sentence.

Reprieve legal director Clive Stafford Smith said that on Thursday the authorities in Laos announced that they were bringing forward her trial by around a year to next week.

He believes the decision to move the trial was only taken after arrangements were made for her to see a lawyer for the first time.

He said: "It's pretty shocking that they would do that apparently to avoid her seeing a British lawyer before she has to go to trial.

"The notion that no lawyer should be appointed to defend her is outrageous."

He said she was "certainly not guilty" and had originally told police the drugs were not hers.

Mr Stafford Smith added: "We're dealing with a woman who has clearly become pregnant in prison. Nothing that happens in that prison is voluntary".

Labour MP Stephen Pound, vice chair of the all party group on the death penalty, said Miss Orobator was being kept "in the most inhumane circumstances".

He criticised conditions in the prison saying there was evidence of "no space, no light, no exercise, no diet, no food, no consideration of the needs of a woman carrying a baby".

There is no British Embassy in Laos and the nearest is in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are paying close attention to her welfare and are in discussion with the Laotian authorities about her case.

"We have visited Samantha every month and we have kept in close contact with the family."

She said Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Minister Bill Rammell will raise the issue with the Laotian foreign minister when he visits the UK on 7 May.

But Mr Stafford Smith fears that could be too late.

He said: "The trial will be over by then. We're calling on the government to do everything in its power".

He wants the trial to be put back and for Reprieve lawyers and mental health professionals to be allowed into the prison. He is also seeking assurances that Miss Orobator will be provided with a proper defence.

Miss Orobator was born in Nigeria but lived in south London from the age of eight. Her father lives in Nigeria and her mother and three sisters live in Ireland.

She had been on holiday in Thailand and the Netherlands before travelling to Laos.

At least 39 people have been sentenced to death in Laos since 2003.

BBC News
May 1, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8029787.stm

[enquirewithin]

Pregnant Briton Samantha Orobator to face drug smuggling trial in Laos on Monday

The trial of a pregnant Briton who could face death by firing squad if she is convicted of drug smuggling is to take place tomorrow, according to a legal charity.

Samantha Orobator was arrested at Wattay Airport in Laos in August last year after she was allegedly caught with 680g of heroin. In Laos, smuggling more than 500g carries a mandatory death sentence.
Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris flew into the country today fearing the trial would start before they were allowed to meet on Tuesday.

According to the charity, Orobator was able to make contact with their office in London today and said she had been told the trial would start tomorrow morning.

Reprieve said the Laotian authorities brought the trial forward in an apparent attempt to stop lawyers from intervening. Up until now the 20-year-old from south London has had no legal representation.
Speaking from Laos, Morris said she would meet with British consular officials tomorrow.

She said she understood the system in Laos was that defendants were only able to see lawyers a week before their trials or, in some cases, on the same day trials began.

She told Sky News: "That has been our concern from the outset, that she has had no access to legal counsel before this week.
"We don't know that she is going to have any before any trial takes place and we are deeply concerned about the implications of that for her given her vulnerability, given her age and given her lack of familiarity with the system."

She said British officials had only been able to visit Orobator for a period of 20 minutes once a month. The British only learned of her arrest when she had already spent many months languishing in the notorious Phonthong prison. "Through no fault of their own they simply haven't been allowed the access to her," Morris said.

"We are concerned about her healthcare standards, we are concerned about her nutrition, we are concerned about her lack of pre-natal care. "This is a vulnerable young woman with child so we are extremely concerned about the lack of access that anyone has had.

"It's simply not acceptable to allow this young woman to be without a lawyer and then to move the trial to a time she is not certain of and before her British lawyers and consular representatives have a chance to see her."

Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith said: "Somehow she managed to get a call through. She told us the trial had been set for tomorrow.
"This whole process is a farce. The trial is just being put on as a show.
"They wanted to get it all over with before she was able to see a British lawyer."

Her mother, Jane Orobator, a student at Trinity College Dublin, broke down as she said: "I'm so scared. I'm so scared. She does not even have her legal representative and they are bringing her for a trial. I don't know what they are up to there."

She said she found out about her daughter's arrest around late September but did not believe it was really her. "Initially I didn't believe she was the one because of her personality," she told Sky News.

"I don't believe something like that has happened to her. I thought it was somebody else. She's not that type of girl. It's not in her."

The justice secretary, Jack Straw, said: "There's not been a sentence of death here but our view about and our policy about capital punishment is absolute: we are against capital punishment in any circumstances and wherever a British citizen has been sentenced to death we make very very strong representations for that sentence not to be carried out and for it to be commuted." Laos broke international agreements on consular relations by not informing the British, apparently using the excuse that they did not have access to a fax machine.

There is no British embassy in Laos and the nearest is in Thailand. The FCO found out "by coincidence" when the Australians passed on information from another inmate in Phonthong prison.

Foreign office minister Bill Rammell said he will raise the case with the Laotian deputy prime minister when they meet in the UK on Thursday. Campaigners have also raised questions over how Orobator, who is due to give birth in September, could have become pregnant while in jail. Stafford Smith said: "She is five months pregnant, without ever having met a lawyer, facing a show trial for her life.

"If this provokes a miscarriage, the Laotians should understand that they have caused the death of this baby. "There can hardly be a circumstance where scheduling a capital trial is less appropriate."

She has been held since her arrest at the notorious Phonthong prison, where inmates have complained of being beaten and abused. Orobator was born in Nigeria but lived in south London with her aunt from the age of eight. She lived in Camberwell and Peckham before leaving the country to travel to Ireland, Holland and Thailand. She is understood to have been arrested in Laos on her way back to the UK. In the prison, cells measuring four square metres are used to house up to six prisoners. The daily ration reportedly consists of two bowls of pig fat water soup and 500g of sticky rice, and most prisoners rely on their families to deliver food. Other prisoners have reported incidents of abuse and torture, with some inmates having their genitals burnt.

Since 2003 at least 39 people have been sentenced to death in the east Asian country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...muggling-trial

Comment:

Another victim of the the War on Drugs. Britain has little right to complain. It was international pressure that made Laos conform to the absurd UN position on drugs. Like many third world countries they over-reacted.

This is tragic, but also warning to people thinking that Laos is such a laid back country that drug smuggling doesn't matter.

[amre]

This is Sick. The jail is an All women jail! The girl was raped and now they will kill her for sure to stop everyone from finding out the abuse she sufferd.
She was in jail for 9 months and shes 5 months Pregnat.
SCUM BAGS.

I dont care if she is the Baron Drug lord of earth. They cant Rape her then shoot her dead. I hate this fuking planet.

If she was white it would be front page news. All the west up in arms for the "wrongly accused White Woman" I really feel sick..

[sandoz1943]

You got to wonder how many local women have been inprisioned, raped, and put to death that no one outside thier family cared enough about to get involved. Sure this isnt the first time and sadly not the last either.

[Bajeda]

Laos broke international agreements on consular relations by not informing the British, apparently using the excuse that they did not have access to a fax machine.

There isn't a single fax machine in the entire country!?! And fax machines are apparently the only way for one government to get in touch with another?


This entire thing is a sham, whether Ms. Orobator is truly guilty or was simply a diversion for drug smugglers, and way this miscarriage of justice is being carried out is reprehensible.

[Mona Lisa]

I hope they at least let her give birth before they shoot her. It's not fair to kill the unborn baby off too, I don't care if it was the product of a rape...it's all so sad.

[thebige]

It is real nice the put one of her modeling cover shots in the story for her picture......
I wonder what she looks like now.........
A Beautiful woman.......



SAD

[enquirewithin]

Originally Posted by thebige

It is real nice the put one of her modeling cover shots in the story for her picture......
I wonder what she looks like now.........
A Beautiful woman.......
SAD

Yeah! I was thinking along the same lines.

[pinksox]

Somehow, I highly doubt that Britain is going to allow Laos to execute one of their citizens, especially a female citizen--pregnancy aside(which the Laotian own laws prevent)--for a drugs charge.

I'd foresee them leveling human rights violations against them for her incarceration-induced pregnancy as-is.

Make no doubt, part of the decision to make her story so widely publicized was to put increased diplomatic pressure upon Laos. They'll free her before too long..or stand to lose billions in foreign aid and multiple countries cutting off their diplomatic ties with them.

[DopinDan]

Originally Posted by pinksox

Somehow, I highly doubt that Britain is going to allow Laos to execute one of their citizens, especially a female citizen--pregnancy aside(which the Laotian own laws prevent)--for a drugs charge.

I'd foresee them leveling human rights violations against them for her incarceration-induced pregnancy as-is.

Make no doubt, part of the decision to make her story so widely publicized was to put increased diplomatic pressure upon Laos. They'll free her before too long..or stand to lose billions in foreign aid and multiple countries cutting off their diplomatic ties with them.

I hope that's true, but to be put to death (or even threatened with death) because of government, collectivist, prohibitionist policy, hit's at the very heart of the human rights violation that is the "drug war" and the UN single convention, and all that other man made bullshit, designed to control the bodies of the masses.

[its just a ride]

Orobator was arrested in Laos on August 5, 2008 on her way home to Britain after travelling through Ireland, the Netherlands and Thailand. She had allegedly been caught with 1.5lb (680g) of herion at an airport in Laos. Orobator is pregnant and due to give birth in September, 2009. Prosecutors have confirmed that she will not face the death penalty. repreive and experts on Laos justice system have claimed that they do not believe Orobator will get a fair trial, due to the hard drug laws of Laos. The vice-consul of the British mission in Bangkok flew to Laos to see Orobator, and British Foreign Office MinisterBill Rammell pledged to discuss her case with the Laotian Deputy Prime Minister.

its just a ride added 0 Minutes and 24 Seconds later...

[cannabis-sam]

If she was white it would be front page news. All the west up in arms for the "wrongly accused White Woman" I really feel sick..

Aside from how horrible this is, I really do not agree that less of a deal has been made about it because of her skin colour, it's been quite big news over here and nobody has given the impression that it's less important because it's black, infact I don't think it was even mentioned in the article. It really irriates me when people claim some form of rascism whenever a black person is in the news, imo it furthers racial segragation.

It is very sad, even if she doesn't get the death penalty, the asian drug laws are awful, it's amazing how penalties can be worse than the things they fail to prevent.

[enquirewithin]

Originally Posted by cannabis-sam

Aside from how horrible this is, I really do not agree that less of a deal has been made about it because of her skin colour, it's been quite big news over here and nobody has given the impression that it's less important because it's black, infact I don't think it was even mentioned in the article. It really irriates me when people claim some form of rascism whenever a black person is in the news, imo it furthers racial segragation.

It is very sad, even if she doesn't get the death penalty, the asian drug laws are awful, it's amazing how penalties can be worse than the things they fail to prevent.

It was front page news in some of the papers (not that the media is not biased). She is not going to have a happy life for many years, with her new child. Another victim of the war on drugs, but not a very sensible one.

[enquirewithin]

Drug charge woman 'impregnated herself'
Tuesday, 2 June 2009

A British woman facing trial in Laos for alleged heroin trafficking secretly impregnated herself with the sperm of another prisoner in a bid to escape the death sentence, a government-run newspaper said today. Samantha Orobator's case at first drew international attention over concerns that she could be executed by firing squad if found guilty. But under criminal law in Laos, a pregnant woman cannot receive the death penalty. The British Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, said it had been notified by Lao authorities that her trial would begin tomorrow. The Vientiane Times quoted police as saying that the woman told authorities she secretly obtained sperm from a fellow prisoner to impregnate herself to avoid the death penalty. The newspaper did not name the sources or give other details.
This article is from The Belfast Telegraph

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...f-1695002.html

[enquirewithin]

Pregnant British drugs smuggler gets life

Pregnant Briton Samantha Orobator was found guilty of heroin smuggling and sentenced to life in prison by a court in Laos today. A British Embassy spokesman said the verdict on the 20-year-old from London was handed down at a one-day hearing in the capital Vientiane.
Heroin trafficking is punishable by death, but Lao law does not allow the execution of pregnant women. Under a recent pact, she could be extradited to serve her time in Britain. Orobator's case attracted attention because she became pregnant while in a women-only jail. Lao officials think she may have managed to artificially inseminate herself. Orobator arrived in court wearing a blue prison outfit and smiling to reporters. She was escorted by women prison guards but was not in handcuffs or ankle chains. Her mother also attended the trial and looked distressed leaving court after the trial, but Orobator appeared calm.

Police said they found 1.5lbs of heroin in 68 capsules on Orobator when she was arrested at Vientiane airport on her way to Australia. The British legal charity Reprieve said the drugs were found in her luggage. Orobator was arrested last August, but her case did not draw international attention until news of her pregnancy became public in early May amid concerns that she could be executed by firing squad if found guilty. The Lao government later confirmed that under the country's criminal law, a pregnant woman cannot receive the death penalty, but officials delayed her scheduled trial date in May because of questions about how she became pregnant. According to Lao officials, Orobator initially told authorities she was pregnant by her boyfriend in England, but tests after she was arrested showed no signs of pregnancy. It was not until March 2 that a hospital test showed she was pregnant, verified by a second test April 4, police said. That meant she must have become pregnant while in prison, they said.

Orobator's mother recently said her daughter had not been raped by prison officials or fellow prisoners, as some media had speculated. The Vientiane Times yesterday quoted police as saying Orobator admitted she secretly obtained sperm from a fellow prisoner to impregnate herself to avoid the death penalty.

Press Association Wednesday, 3 June 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...e-1695837.html

[Alicia In Wonderland]

Well, this is like a horrible soap opera, this whole ordeal.
She's 20 year's old. And she's sent to life. She'll be in jail for at least over 50 years.
She probably didn't even begin to live her life. What a shame.

[cannabis-sam]

I was thinking the same as alicia however half of me says it was her own fault, because it's well known how harsh the penalties are in those countries, it seems insane she'd pick laos. But still it is utterly tragic and i feel terrible for the poor woman.

[Alicia In Wonderland]

Originally Posted by cannabis-sam

I was thinking the same as alicia however half of me says it was her own fault, because it's well known how harsh the penalties are in those countries, it seems insane she'd pick laos. But still it is utterly tragic and i feel terrible for the poor woman.

I agree, it was definitely her fault for doing something so completely stupid in such a strict country, but I also think that it's comes with her age in a sense. Young people do stupid things without thinking of the consequences. I believe that the ability to realize the effects of your actions is the last thing your brain develops (and I think that finished developing at 25 yrs. if I remember correctly).
Which is why this saddens me so much. She doesn't even have the opportunity to redeem herself from her mistakes. This is a mistake that will cost her her life, and I find that absolutely unnecessary. It's not like she went on a murdering spree, she was just a stupid young girl.

[enquirewithin]

Her 'crime' is a victimless one. It is a great shame. The war on drugs is a war against ordinary people. She showed no common sense as she did not research the penalties. If she really did artificially inseminate herself that was a clever thing to do. Whose baby will she give birth to?

[cannabis-sam]

Unfortunatly it's always the small time runners that get caught, the people making most of the profit aren't taking any of the risk.

[enquirewithin]

In Laos, the big dealers will have connections very high up.

[enquirewithin]

The pregnant British woman jailed for life in Laos for smuggling drugs has told the authorities that the man who saved her from the death sentence by fathering her baby is a fellow British prisoner, John Watson.
Diplomatic efforts are under way to fast-track the return of Watson, 47, who is also serving a life sentence for drug smuggling, and Samantha Orobator, 20, to serve out their sentences in UK jails.

Orobator pleaded guilty on Wednesday in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, to trying to smuggle heroin out of the country, but her death sentence was commuted because she is pregnant.

Watson's mother, Pat, has said that he is "ecstatic" at becoming a father again - he has two children by an ex-fiancee in the UK - but that he is denying to the prison authorities that he is the father of Orobator's child. His mobile phone has been confiscated by officials at the squalid Phonthong prison in Vientiane, where the pair are being held, and he could face further sanctions from the authorities if he was proven to have helped Orobator. Orobator, from London, has been held in Phonthong since she was arrested at Wattay international airport on 5 August last year. She conceived in late December and said the father was a Buddhist monk, before claiming that she had inseminated herself using Watson's sperm. A syringe was found among her belongings.

Speaking from her home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Mrs Watson said her son and Orobator were "close" and in a relationship. "John emailed me a few months ago and said, 'How would you feel about being a grandma again?' "At first I thought he was joking, but then he rang me and he sounded ecstatic. He told me he'd met a girl and she was having his baby. "John has been looking after Samantha and they've spent a lot of time together. They've become really close. Men and women are in separate cells, but they are mixed in the yard and the other parts of the prison, so they've managed to forge a relationship. "It was the happiest I'd heard him sound for years - I think he thought they could be a family."
Building plans of the jail show that in one blockhouse there are male and female cells next to each other.

Although the UK and Laos signed a prisoner transfer agreement last month, it does not come into force for months, so Orobator faces having her first baby in the jail. However, she was being visited by a doctor this weekend and her supporters hope she will be certified fit to fly sooner. She is said to be worried that the prison diet will harm her baby and was described by her mother, Jane, as "very fragile". Caroline Morten, of human rights group Reprieve, said: "She's just into her third trimester now and needs to be given a doctor's approval to fly, but we are hoping to get her back in a week. At the moment we don't want to talk too much about what's going on, but we are optimistic."

Watson was arrested in 2003 and given a life sentence in 2006. His health has deteriorated in jail and he is said to suffer from depression. He has been denied visits from anyone except officials from the Australian embassy, who are able to meet him once a month, and he is able to send occasional emails home. The UK has no consulate in Laos. "I know it sounds like an old cliche," Watson said last year to the Foreign Prisoner Support Service, an online campaigning group based in Australia, "but honestly, being in here, I do truly believe now that you don't know what you've got till it's gone." Last year he was "utterly distraught" when another British prisoner whom he had befriended fell ill and died. Michael Newman, a 43-year-old businessman, had been refused medical attention and was found dead in his cell. In 2001 a French man also died at Phonthong of an untreated medical condition. A spokesman from the Foreign Office said: "We are working on the goodwill of the Laotian government to repatriate Ms Orobator as soon as possible and Mr Watson would of course benefit from that too in making an application."


Drug convict: Briton is my baby's father
Pregnant smuggler spared death sentence in Laos claims fellow prisoner acted as sperm donor

The Observer, Sunday 7 June 2009-Tracy McVeigh
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...-smuggler-laos

[Junkhead23]

A British woman who avoided the death penalty for smuggling heroin by becoming pregnant is expected to return home tomorrow from a prison in Laos.


Samantha Orobator, 20, will be transferred to complete her drug trafficking sentence in a British jail. Her mother said today that she was “shocked but delighted” by her daughter’s imminent return.

Following an agreement signed last week between the governments of Laos and Britain she could be released completely after a few years.

Jane Orobator said: “I just want her to come back to the UK, that is my first desire. One step at a time, I just want her to have her baby here.”
Related Links


Orobator is expected to give birth in the next few weeks. A fellow British prisoner, John Watson, 47, is reportedly the father of Orobator’s child and he can also apply for transfer under the memorandum of understanding.

A Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Orobator’s transfer tomorrow evening was a humanitarian gesture that takes into account her pregnancy.

“To my understanding, she is fine. The doctor keeps an eye on her,” he said.

“Both the officials from the UK and from Laos have taken care of her, particularly her health.”

Orobator’s scheduled return to the UK has been welcomed by human rights activists. Clive Stafford-Smith, director of Reprieve, said: “I hope when she gets back the Government allows her access to independent lawyers, which she hasn’t yet had.

“The stress she’s been through has been phenomenal and the biggest risk has been to her unborn child.”

He urged the Government to treat her compassionately. “She needs to be sent to hospital, not prison. No-one can think the Laos conviction is valid and for Britain to enforce that is to enforce something surely everyone in the British government deplores.”

Britain will be bound to uphold her sentence but it will be up to the High Court to set a minimum tariff. Orobator is expected to be allowed to return to the UK despite failing to pay a fine of more than £42,000.

Orobator has been held in jail in Laos since last August. Authorities repeatedly postponed her trial while they attempted to solve the mystery of how she fell pregnant in the women’s wing of a prison.

Heroin trafficking is punishable by death in the country but Orobator was spared because Lao law does not allow the execution of pregnant women.

Police found 1.5 pounds (680 grams) of heroin in 68 capsules on her body when she was arrested at Vientiane airport on her way to Australia.

Under a pact signed in May by Laos and Britain, Orobator can serve her time in Britain. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding last week bringing the agreement into force.

Since her arrest, Orobator has been held at the Phanthong prison. Former inmates have described conditions as squalid and lawyers say that the meagre rations are inadequate for a pregnant woman.

Source - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6740030.ece

[sweettea]

She's fortunate, a British jail is a much better outcome for all of this.

I'd like to point out or emphasize or whatever, that many international travelers and international workers seem to forget that they are guests in the foreign country. They are subjected to the laws of the country they are in, NOT their home country's laws. Whatever rights a person has in their home country doesn't mean a damn thing when you set foot outside your country.

Many of the Southeast Asian countries don't piss around when it comes to drugs. When I travel through those areas, I take carry-on luggage only. Yes, this means I travel very light, but washing out ones unmentionables in the sink beats the hell outta any stuff ups with checked luggage. Plus, I make damn sure I know what behavior is acceptable and what isn't. And follow the firkin rules to the letter.

There is a similar case of an Aussie gal, Schapelle Corby, she was convicted and imprisioned in Indonesia for drug smuggling. She is serving a 20-year sentence for the importation of 9.3-lbs or 4.2-kgs of cannabis into Bali, Indonesia. She is presently in Kerobokan Prison, Bali. She too, claims her innocence and that the drugs were planted in her boogie board bag. The Indonesian Supreme Court doesn't give a damn, they found the stash in her belongings. Full stop.

She's rather pretty too, by the way.

[Junkhead23]

To be honest pacman doesn't have much sympathy for these people who try to traffic drugs (especially those who have the drugs TAPED to their body or just in a bag) from areas such as these. before they do it do they not research the penalties for such crimes