There is something wrong in the case of Samantha Orobator, the pregnant British woman who could face death by firing squad in Laos if she is convicted of drug smuggling.
She has been in custody for nine months.
She is five months pregnant.
The Reprieve Charity lawyer, Anna Morrris has said:
British officials had only been able to visit Orobator for a period of 20 minutes once a month.
Australian Kay Danes told Sky News the conditions at the Phonthong prison were “horrific” and “nobody went through that prison and didn’t suffer in some way”.
Ms Danes said: “We endured mock executions, waterboarding and torture.
“I watched my husband sit on a concrete floor with his legs in wooden blocks and they beat him with a steel tyre brace.”
She went on: “I saw young African boys who had their genitals burnt with fire.”
So, are we to assume that conditions are so horrific that the pregnancy can only be as a result of rape?
In which case even a miserly 20 minutes once a month is quite long enough to confide in those British officials who have been visiting her – and I would have expected them to be making urgent representations on her behalf – and making sure the media were well aware of the rape.
Or are the conditions not so horrific and it wasn’t rape?
Reprieve, the organisation which is funding Anna Morris in her search for a Laos counsel for Ms Orobator is some 40% funded by – grants from the Foreign Office to ‘provide assistance to Britons overseas who are facing the death penalty. Note, Reprieve are not actually providing that counsel, they are engaged in searching for a suitable counsel.
Remind me again, why do tax payers fund the Foreign Office? Is it not to provide assistance to Britons overseas amongst other duties? Do they not know who the local counsel are? Why are taxpayers funding yet another charity to do this for them? How does it manage to come as a surprise to them that Ms Orobator is pregnant – did they not enquire as to her conditions of confinement? In nine months we have heard nothing of Ms Orobator, nothing of any rape, nor even of this surprising pregnancy; suddenly Ms Morris, is on a flight to Laos and the media is full of stories of ‘water-boarding’ and ‘torture’.
Where is Max Clifford? On a flight to Laos?
SBML is the landlord of the Raccoon Arms. He lives North of Watford and has an eclictic range of interests from Science and Technology to Politics including Woodwork and Genealogy. His political viewpoint has evolved from being a student demonstrator to more liberal views and has now seen the light in Libertarianism.
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Where is Oprah Winnywotsit? She usually gives her phone number and email to young ladies in dire straits.
Mind you ………….. I forgot ………….. She’s probably missed this extremely disturbing story due to hanging out and shaking loose with the ex-suspect Clan Couple this past coupla weeks.
I must admit that all the details of this case are suspect and odd ………….. I hope I have the wrong information on this poor girl. I read that the drugs were found on her body …………… I hope I am wrong about this. But if they were on her person …………… how would she not know that somebody had planted something weighing more than two pounds onto her personage?
When i read about ms Orobator, they were refering to her as a ‘mule’,
so i just asumed she had swallowed the drugs or smuggled them else where, though, as you point out, Coco, two pounds worth of drugs is a lot. Did the foreign office not believe she’d been set up, is that why her plights virtually been ignored ?
Is punishment for drug smuggling, rape, in some countries ?
Miss Mink …………… Spooky innit! One would hazard a guess that if the drugs were up her flue or up her bottom-flue …………. then she would have remembered how they got up there in the first place. …………. One would imagine that one wouldn’t simply wake up one morning thinking it was just indigestion ……………… or period pains.
Since you mention it ………… I am pretty sure that rape isn’t a punishment in any country that we would ever find on Google Earth ………….. However………….. I am thinking of introducing it as a punishment in the UK for errant bankers and certain Labour Ministers if ever the Coco Commentariat Party gets into power.
Of course it will be a fully-mechanised rape-machine with a built-in lie-detector – and will be rigorously tested on the likes of G20 police-officers who hide their collar-numbers and Mr. Browneye himself.
So watch this space!
You know what? I have no sympathy for someone going to some third world shithole and trying to smuggle drugs. Duped or no, it is still a stupid idea to either try and conceal stuff in your luggage or shove it into a bodily orifice – if you get caught at Heathrow you’ll end up in a British prison but if you get caught in said thrird world shithole, then you will end up in hell central….and it’s no good complaining about it or pleading ifnorance after the fact.
Same here Henry Crun! Same here. Let’s just hope it puts other youngsters off trying to make a fast and easy buck. The money from these drugs are supporting all the evil factions that will bring about WW3. ………… And they are usually buying the arms they are using …………. from us!
? expect it was that B*stard Hugh Grant, never mind ?`m sure that nice Coli?n Firth will get her off.
?
Gloria…..check out Br?dget Jones Diary
Another miracle birth on the way. They come about every 2010 years! Or there’s a prison guard going round with a smile on his face.
Woman could serve jail term in UK
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has signed a prisoner transfer agreement with the Laos government.
I believe there is another Brit in there who has been charged with a similar offence, why haven’t the FO helped him?
He’s not pregnant?
No, I’m being sarcastic Sue, there is something very odd about this one, very selective.
This is all so difficult. On the one hand people should realise that crime in countries other than ours can result in permanent incarceration or death, on the other, anyone who commits a crime such as heroin smuggling has to be verging on insanity, of low intellect or desperate or, in some cases, being used as a patsy.
Like most of you I am bemused by the fact that no one official seems to have been involved in this until the trial was brought forward. Have they ignored her because she is black, young, working class, assumed guilty or what? And, as you say AR, why is the government paying a charity to do what it should be doing itself? What are embassies for? It is indeed weird.
There are a lot of assumptions about this case. Most reports don’t ask the question about the facts that lead to her arrest in the first place. Currently, no one in the press has access to the ‘facts’ because no one has been given access to her (save for the consulate – which will never interfere in another country’s sovereign legal process).
In fact, only these allegations are known at this time:
1. Drugs were found in luggage during transit through Laos.
2. The authorities have stated that the luggage belonged to her.
3. The quantity is sufficient to incur the death penalty.
4. She was locked up in a local prison facility, initially without consular assistance, then without legal assistance. Her family was not informed.
5. She denies the charges, but other than that, zero information has been released.
6. Legal counsel from Reprieve was denied access, despite being issued a visa. Only after international pressure was she allowed to pick a ‘local lawyer’ from a preselected list. When Reprieve was given access, it was in the presence of government officials – which meant nothing meaningful could be discussed with the detainee.
7. Authorities intend to move her trial date forward. Normally, it takes years for such a trial to be heard, but in an effort to reduce the case’s profile, the authorities wish to short list it. Moving the date will make it very difficult for the defence to prepare. If they are heard at all.
8. She is pregnant & it has been reported that this happened while she was detained in a women’s only prison.
9. News reports suggest she is being coerced into saying the pregnancy was voluntary.
In many countries, there is no presumption of innocence in drug smuggling cases. Laws in Oceana, Asia, the Middle East (among other areas) shift the burden of proving innocence onto the person charged if the authorities can prove possession. Any luggage can be tampered with. If it has a zip, it can be opened with a pen and resealed in seconds. Without a trace. Even if it is locked. It could happen to you.
Seeing is believing: http://www.securoseal.com/main.php?pg=news&news_id=316
Luggage transit areas in airports are inherently unsafe and affected by criminal activity. It happens all the time and its not just Asia. Its in the west too. Its not an exaggeration – its a fact.
Read about it: http://www.securoseal.com/main.php?id=325
If it happened to you, would that make you a smuggler? Think about it next time you pack your luggage and check it in. Think about it next time you read a news story about a bag just like yours.
Chances are, if it does happen, you won’t have a clue until you are in cuffs and the assumptions are written next to your name.
Securoseal – that’s it, I’m staying where I am for the rest of my life. In my innocence it never occurred to me a baggage handler could make me a drug smuggler. Na
no no janes, you’re supposed to go and buy the securoseal.
Secureseal, wow! Have looked it up and will order one at the earliest opportunity. First though I must buy a trailer that Ryanair will accept as luggage on their flights.