WORLD: Pregnant Londoner jailed in Laos for smuggling heroin flying back to UK

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said Samantha Orobator boarded a plane to London's Heathrow from the capital Vientiane this afternoon.

Orobator, 20, from south London, is serving a life sentence after admitting drug smuggling.

She would have faced the death penalty had she not been pregnant.

Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant said: "This is excellent news.

"Of course, we do not condone any crimes involving illegal drugs. We work around the world to combat the use of illegal drugs.

"I spend much of my time warning British tourists of the dangers of using drugs in countries such as Laos, which have heavy penalties for these crimes. Samantha will serve her term in a British penal establishment.

"But I saw for myself Samantha's advanced state of pregnancy when I visited her in prison last week.

"The transfer means that Samantha will give birth in the UK, close to her relatives and under UK medical care. This is clearly the best outcome for all - not least her unborn child."

The Lao government agreed she could return to the UK to serve the rest of her prison sentence.

This came in time for the birth of her child which is due next month.

Her mother, 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."

Laos foreign ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing said Orobator's return was a humanitarian gesture which took her pregnancy into account.

He added: "To my understanding, she is fine. The doctor keeps an eye on her. Both the officials from the UK and from Laos have taken care of her, particularly her health."

Clive Stafford-Smith, director of Reprieve, said she should be allowed access to independent lawyers on her return.

He added: "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."

Orobator was jailed last August after she was caught with 1.5lb (680g) of heroin at Vientiane airport on her way to Australia.

Her local MP, Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, said: "I am relieved that Samantha will be able to serve her sentence in the UK.

"I would like to thank the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for all their work, FCO Minister Chris Bryant for travelling to Laos and personally signing the Memorandum of Understanding to make Samantha's transfer possible, and Reprieve, the legal action charity which has been representing her."