Samantha Orobator: Samantha Orobator in British prison (photo)
By Therese Lisieux on May 10th, 2009August 7 – Samantha Orobator was released from the Laos prison and handed over to British authorities. Orobator was flown back to London and immediately sent to Holloway prison in London. Orobator will deliver her baby in September. The British court will have a hearing to decide on the conditions of her sentence.
May 10 2009
Samantha Orobator, a British national, was arrested at Wattay Airport in Vientiane, Laos. Orobator allegedly tried to smuggle 1.5 pounds of heroin. Orobator was arrested in August 2008. Orobator is now 5 months pregnant. Orobator will be tried in court this week. Orobator s expected to declare she was not raped in Phonthong prison.
Orobator would have faced the death penalty if she was convicted of the charge of smuggling heroin. Laos law has a loophole which grants immunity from execution for pregnant women.
Orobator has been given a chance to testify she was not raped and get a transfer to a jail in UK. If Orobator refuses to testify, she will stay in jail in Laos. After she delivers her baby, Orobator will lose her immunity from execution.
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May 20th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
This story makes me so sick. I just cant get my head around WHY or HOW the international community and sit back and allow Laotian government to poke fun at human rights. Im sure she isnt the first to have this happen and most probably wont be the last… There was likely to have been cocersion involved to get her to smuggle the drugs and on top of that she gets raped in prison, only she cant say that she was otherwise remain trapped in that hellhole.
Wrong as it may seem, I seriously hope she is able to get into the UK in time to terminate her pregnancy. I’d feel so sorry for that child if he/she were born. It would be hard to know the circumstances of such a conception and the difficulty for such a young mother to somehow “raise” a child in prison