Pregnant Briton Samantha Orobator escapes death penalty

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Pregnant Briton Samantha Orobator may escape death penalty

A British woman facing trial in Laos on drug charges may escape the death penalty because she is pregnant, according to a Lao government spokesman.

Samantha Orobator, 20, was arrested at Wattay airport in August after allegedly being caught with 680g (1.5lb) of heroin while she was trying to board a plane to Thailand.

Human rights groups and Miss Orobator's mother have spoken of their alarm because she has not been able to see a lawyer during her eight months in custody. Normally anyone found in Laos with more than 500g of heroin faces the death penalty by firing squad.

Khenthong Nuanthasing, a Lao government spokesman, said today that he believed that the trial - which had been unexpectedly brought forward until sometime this week - would now be postponed until next week “due to the issue that we need a lawyer for her".

The Laotian government will provide her with legal counsel, and the justice ministry is compiling a list of lawyers from which she will be able to choose, Mr Khenthong said.

The statement, if confirmed, should help to relieve Miss Orobator's supporters. At the weekend Reprieve, a British charity which helps people facing the death penalty, sent Anna Morris, a UK barrister, to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to seek the appointment of a Laotian lawyer to represent Miss Orobator.

Miss Orobator's supporters are also deeply concerned because she appears to have fallen pregnant while in Laos's notorious Phonthong prison. She is believed to be five months pregnant - a fact which, it emerged today, may work in her favour.

“Another provision of the law also provides that any pregnant (woman) will not be sentenced to the death penalty,” said Mr Khenthong, adding that the judge would decide on the sentence at the trial.

Amnesty International says there have been no executions in Laos since 1989. Those sentenced to death are believed to have remained on death row.

Mr Khenthong said that he understood some foreigners had received death sentences “but in practice it’s not implemented".

Miss Morris said this morning that she had been told she could meet Miss Orobator today, but so far she had been unable to agree a time for the meeting, nor confirm the trial date.

“We are very much in the hands of the Lao authorities, and very much in the dark,” said Miss Morris. “They should be making it a priority to allow us to see her.”

Britain’s vice consul at the embassy in Bangkok has flown to Laos and is said to be “intending to visit her in prison imminently".

Britain’s ambassador to Thailand, Quinton Quayle, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I have really been trying to pursue three key priorities: first of all, that the death penalty should not be imposed in any circumstances - the British Government are strongly opposed to that; secondly, that Samantha should have proper medical treatment, as she is pregnant; and thirdly, that she should have access to professional legal representation.

“I am glad to say that, as I speak, we have got our vice-consul in Vientiane who we hope will be seeing Samantha later today. He is working alongside a lawyer from Reprieve who is also hoping to visit with our vice-consul today.

“That will give her some legal advice, but we think it is very important that she gets local expert representation and that is a point we are pressing the Lao authorities very strongly on today.”

A British embassy spokesman in Bangkok said that British diplomats first visited Miss Orobator on August 14, within a week of being notified of her arrest, and had returned several times since. The embassy has not received official confirmation of her trial date.

Bill Rammell, the Foreign Office Minister, has said that he will raise Miss Orobator's case with the Lao Deputy Prime Minister when they meet in London in two days' time.

Ms Orobator was born in Nigeria but lived with her aunt in Camberwell and Peckham from the age of eight. She left the country to travel to Ireland, the Netherlands and Thailand and is understood to have been arrested in Laos on her way back to Britain.

Clare Algar, executive director of Reprieve, said that all she knew about the case was that Miss Orobator was arrested nine months ago and protested her innocence at the time.

“We don’t really know anything more in relation to the alleged offence than that,” she said. “We also don’t know the circumstances of her becoming pregnant, which is an area for extreme concern. Until we go in and see her, we won’t be able to establish that.

“In terms of a trial this week, that is extremely worrying, because we will be going in to bat for Samantha’s life without having spoken to her at all at the moment.”

Ms Algar said she understood that the Lao minister will discuss a prison transfer scheme when he comes to London on Thursday, something which Reprieve would “wholeheartedly support”.

Reports from former inmates at Phonthong jail suggest that conditions are “not good - certainly not for anybody who is pregnant”, said Ms Algar.

“There appears to be overcrowding. People who have left the jail in the past have been malnourished. There hasn’t been a great deal of food or water. Clearly there aren’t vitamins or ante-natal care and people have complained about being abused in the prison.

“We remain very worried both for Samantha’s physical and mental health and for the health of her unborn child.”

Ms Orobator's mother, Jane, a student at Trinity College Dublin, broke down as she spoke of her fears for her daughter.

"I’m so scared," she said. "I’m just appealing to the British Government, to the Laos authorities, to just please release her. They should just being her back to me. Please."

Source: Times Online

David

[Sparky]

I hope they also question how she got pregnant in an all-woman's prison.

[InterestedGuy08]

If I had a nickel for every person that claimed they were innocent of drug smuggling, I'd be a millionaire by now.

But I agree with you Sparky, that is very shady and would like to know how that happened.

[Sparky]

If I had a nickel for every person that claimed they were innocent of drug smuggling, I'd be a millionaire by now.

But I agree with you Sparky, that is very shady and would like to know how that happened.

Another report said that she's 5-months pregnant, even tho she was arrested last July or August, and the women's prison she is being held in in notorious for abuse. Sure, what you say about the many false claims of innocence is true. But the thought of this kind of abuse, i.e. the suspicion that she has been raped, possibly forcefully though also through coersion by being told it could help her case, is sickening.

Anyway, it's interesting that the story puts Laos back in the news since it's largely one of those "non-existent" countries that you hardly ever read about. Like some kind of hermit nation like North Korea - tho NK makes sure it keeps itself in the news.

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

I hope they also question how she got pregnant in an all-woman's prison.

She is in Phontong which is not an all-woman's prison, it is the prison for foreigner's and political prisoners in Vietiane.

http://www.usp.com.au/fpss/prison-phonthong.html

David

[Sparky]

That's even worse. Women prisoners shouldn't be kept in the same facility.

Shame on The Guardian for reporting that it was an all-women jail. Shame on Laos that this could happen too.

Given that if it's true this prison is for foreigners and political prisoners, I wonder what the ratio is, seeing as most Asian prisons are overflowing. I find it hard to imagine that there are several thousand foreign prisoners in Lao jails.

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Given that if it's true this prison is for foreigners and political prisoners, I wonder what the ratio is, seeing as most Asian prisons are overflowing. I find it hard to imagine that there are several thousand foreign prisoners in Lao jails.

The weblink I gave above lists details of 89 prisoners held there that they know about. 75 are male and 14 are female. Also 30 of the 89 are Thai.

David

[InterestedGuy08]

This reminds me of some story or movie about a woman getting pregnant and then avoiding the death penalty or something (not saying this is the case but it reminded me of that).

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Pregnant Samantha Orobator refused lawyer before Laos drugs trial

A pregnant Briton held on drugs charges in one of Asia’s most dreaded prisons has been denied all contact with lawyers.

Campaigners said that Samantha Orobator, 20, faces the terrifying ordeal of a show trial under “hastily convened and highly dubious” circumstances.

Ms Orobator, from South London, is accused of boarding a flight from Laos to Thailand with 680g (1.5lb) of heroin: a quantity which, if she is found guilty under Laotian law, could result in her facing a firing squad.

Ms Orobator, who was not pregnant before her arrest last August, is due to give birth in September. Officials in Laos said that the pregnancy may save her from execution and that the death penalty was not, in practice, applied to foreigners convicted on drugs charges. Survivors of Phanthong prison have warned of the dangers of long-term incarceration in a compound where malnutrition, disease, abuse and torture are part of everyday life.

Kay Danes, an Australian who survived ten months in the same cell block that Ms Orobator is being held, said: “If she goes into early labour or starts miscarrying, nobody will come however much she screams. I’ve heard all the prisoners yelling at the top of their lungs, shouting for the guards when one of the inmates was dying, and nobody comes. Nobody ever comes.”

She said that the prison was a “terrible, terrifying” place where inmates survived on meagre, often deeply unhygienic rations of pig fat soup or occasionally a paste made from catfish that had perished from disease in one of the foetid prison ponds.

Hopes that Ms Orobator might finally catch her first glimpse of a lawyer after nearly a year of incarceration were abruptly crushed last night.

Anna Morris, a legal envoy from the London-based charity Reprieve, travelled to the Laotian capital Vientiane to discuss Ms Orobator’s case but was told at the prison gates that the meeting had been cancelled. No reason was given.

“I’m just down on my knees. They should please have mercy,” Ms Orobator’s mother, Jane, told reporters in Britain. “No one has been allowed to see her, she has no legal representative.”

Campaign groups said that it remained unclear under what circumstances Ms Orobator had become pregnant while in prison.

Dr Thongloun Sisoulith, the Deputy Prime Minister of Laos, is due to meet Bill Rammell, a junior Foreign Office minister, in Britain tomorrow. Their discussions will include Ms Orobator’s case and the question of whether she is being properly treated.

Source: Times Online

David

[senaratne]

The whole saga is tragic and so stinking.