Pregnant Briton 'faces execution'

[Ed Zeppelin]

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.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8029787.stm

 

[Flashermac]

Hmmm ... SE Asian racism shows its hand again? And the Lao PDR is hardly a paragon of civil rights. But why would anyone smuggled heroin INTO Laos?Opium is still not that hard to find there.

 

 

 

 

[Ed Zeppelin]

Maybe she was trying to take it out of the country.

[Mekong]

I need to know more facts before I can pass judgement but a couple of things in the Sky News Report Caught my eye.

 

Orobator, from south London, lived in both Camberwell and Peckham

 

Peckham is over 50% Black African / African Caribbean population, white British make up only 25% of the population. It is the hotbed of "The Yardies" who are involved in a high proportion of Cocaine, Crack Cocaine and Heroine Dealing in the Capital.

 

Samantha Orobator, 20, was arrested at Wattay Airport in Laos in August last year allegedly in possession of 1.5lb (680g) of heroin after a holiday in Thailand and the Netherlands

 

She is originaly from Nigeria lived in Peckham and vacated in Holland, Thailand and Laos, 3 countries to be involved in the international smuggling of opiates.

 

Miss Oseni said Orobator had led a troubled life and had made several suicide attempts in the past, adding: "She suffered from low self esteem because she suffered a lot of abuse by men, by family, by friends."

 

Admittance by a friend of "Her Troubled Past", one does not need a Phd in Phsycology to ascertain the social levels of her family and friends cnsidering she is a Nigerian who used to live in Peckham and vacated in Holland Thailand and Laos.

 

The cynic in me believes that if she was not directly involved, she was very close to the actual people who were, tha fact that she got pregnant in Phonthong prison 4 months after her arrest is an attempt to garner sympathy.

 

[The_Munchmaster]

...., one does not need a Phd in Phsycology to ascertain the social levels of her family and friends considering she is a Nigerian who used to live in Peckham....

I wonder if she knows Del Boy and Rodney?

 

[Mekong]

MM,

 

I understand your comment very droll sir!

 

But looking beyond the humorous aspets of the situation you must surely understand my sceptasism. As I have intimated in the past on this forum I used to operate on the wrong side of the law up until my mid twenties when I got my act together,over 20 years ago now, and there are certain facts from this case that make me suspicious.

 

Perfect "Mule" Candidate, 1.5KG of a Class "A" arriving in UK as a mule would be 7-10 years in real terms 4-7 years with parole, for maybe GBP 2,000 payday. IMHO Ms Orobator got greedy and wanted to make big money in one go, hence the Holland > Thailand > Laos journey making contacts along the way in order to secure her own deal and make bigger money if she got back to UK with the same risks (7-10) involved if shewere just a mere mule.

 

Unfortunatley she did not consider the actual consequences of being caught leavind SE Asia, be it Laos or Thailand, her naivety / greed took over from common sense, Ed Zep summed it up saying she was probab;y caught on the way out. I wouldn't be surprised if the persons she allegedly purchased the narcotics from didn't inform customs at Wattay airport in order to get a far bigger shipment of their own out via the same portal, after all the consignement would hve already have bee paid for and they had nothing to loose.

 

 

 

[Sakai]

A 20 years old black in either LOS, Laos or Cambodia

is a rarity...a 20 years old black woman is even more of a rarity.

 

The black people I know who work in Asia are usually Americans and have at least finished university so they are older than 20 years old.

 

If she is indeed 20 years old black from the UK and has really traveled to Thailand and Laos then the case is quite simple:

What is her job/means of living in the UK?

If she is either unemployed or with a low qualification job (likely) then she is most probably guilty of drug smuggling.

 

Of course, she is probably a low level drug sumggler working for a fee.

 

She played, she lost, unluckily for her, local laws in Laos and other countries are less forgiving than the GB ones.

 

Bad luck, just hope it would be a life sentence instead of firing squad and that they would wait for the child to be born.

 

Sadly, I suppose with the UK pricks that she will be sent back to the UK. Who said double standard?

A Laotian would be shot (maybe on the spot) but because she is a young black from UK she will probably have her ass saved by some stupid MP.

 

Having a hard life as a child is no excuse, I know several friends who were not more lucky and who didn't turn to drugs to succeed in life.

[Hugh_Hoy]

A couple of cases like this in BKK I know of from the past.

 

Nigerian dope traffickers recruit their mules from the ranks of the "needy" and "greedy".

 

In the 90's, Nigerians heavily recruited Dallas, TX "skinny dancers" to make the trips to SEA. Two girls would fly from the U.S. to BKK. After about a week, they would be given their "load" and sent on a flight to a country like Poland or an East Bloc country where their entry would be easy. (Two American girls on holiday with US dollars to spend.) No hassle at the airport. Check into a hotel. Two other girls would fly from the U.S. to Poland (for instance). Stay for a week. Get the load from the girls who had arrived from BKK. The BKK girls return to the U.S. Despite suspicions aroused from a curious travel itinerary (including a visit to a "source" country), they would be "clean" when clearing U.S. Customs. The girls who only flew to Poland for a week to "visit relatives" would bring the dope back without any suspicions raised. Authorities finally caught on.

 

By sheer coincidence, I probably ran into one of the BKK gals in, of all places, the Hogs Breath one night in the company of a farang. He said he met her in a tailor shop. She was friendly, but not overly-so. She actually did some pole dancing which the regular girls watched with open jaws. 555555555 (I did too). Anyway, she said she was in BKK for a week before going on to Romania. BKK and Romania. Now that's not on many folks single itinerary. Single girls in their early 20's going to BKK for a week by themselves? Not fucking likely. And, after only a few days had not seen a friggin' tourist attraction? Had not ventured more than 1 km from her hotel? Come on dear. What are u really here for, I'm thinking. (I didn't have to let my imagination go far.) I can only say that she appeared to have chickened out. She ended up hauling ass directly back to the States the way she came a couple of days later. She was waaaaaaaaaaaay too nervous and her handlers probably didn't feel good about losing a couple of keys of H by using her.

 

Then there was the "grandma mafia". Women in their 60's that were used quite successfully for a while. Mandatory 10 years in the Fed Pen probably didn't add a lot of years to their lives.

 

I gotta go with Mekong and the others that this gal probably knew exactly what the nature of the deal was. I personally have no problem with executing smugglers of heroin...after they have told everything they know about the operation and who their co-conspirators are.

 

Good luck to the little one.

 

HH

[Faustian]

Then there's the argument which goes that execution isn't the appropriate sentence for drug smuggling, but then why apply reason....?

[sanddawg1]

How many people do the drugs kill?