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A pregnant London woman jailed for life in Laos for drug trafficking heard today she may be able to return to the UK to serve out her sentence.
But Samantha Orobator, 20, might have to give birth abroad because airlines will not carry her after 12 August due to her advanced pregnancy.
She was caught attempting to smuggle 680g (1.5lb) of heroin — which normally carries the death penalty. But she was spared because the communist state, which borders Thailand and Vietnam, does not execute pregnant women.
Her hopes of serving out her sentence in the UK were boosted when Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant yesterday signed a deal with the Laotian government “fast-tracking” a prisoner transfer agreement. Ms Orobator's lawyers can now bid for her release.
Ms Orabator, who was born in Nigeria but grew up in Camberwell and Peckham, was arrested last August in the capital Vientiane as she was boarding a flight to Thailand. She had concealed the drugs on her body.
She is thought to be seven months' pregnant and is reported to have artificially inseminated herself in Phonthong prison. But there have also been suggestions that she was raped in jail.
She was sentenced to life last month, but British diplomats, the London-based charity Reprieve, and her mother Jane pinned their hopes on a deal being struck for her to return..
To allow the transfer, Ms Orobator had to renounce her right to appeal and any claim alleging she was raped.
Reader views (14)
let him who has not sinned cast the first stone. Ms Orobator committed a crime which I believe she has paid a great deal from. She has suffered rape and God knows what else. What she needs now more than any thing, is our love and understanding. Some people are seeing a convicted drug dealler in her , I see a great councellor who has had an experince, which she can use to help all other young and old girls and women who might be thinking about making the same mistakes. "If you dont learn your lesson from the experinced, you will always learn your lesson by experience .Give Samantha a chance.
- Richard, london, 07/08/2009 22:53
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Good on her - should make an excellent MP on her return. She has all the talent necessary. Entrepreneurial spirit (drug smuggling); a taste for travel (at tax payers' expense); free accommodation (at Her Majesty's Pleasure)and the ability to squirm out of any corner (her amazing pregnancy). All she needs now is to say it was all a terrible mistake and the media have been muckraking and she'll have my vote. What were they thinking of in Laos? How dare they catch her!
- Bart, London UK, 29/07/2009 11:57
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"Girl" ? She's not a girl, she's a grown woman. I think the child should be put up for adoption, than way he/she will grow up with loving parents who want a child, as opposed to a drug smuggling do-no-good who only conceived to avoid sentencing. Picture this conversation:
- Mum, who's my dad?
- Dear, he's a drug smuggler just like me, and just wanted to get nack to a cushy British prison, just like me, and actually we didn't want you in the first place...
- Juma, london, uk, 29/07/2009 10:37
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we are so soft in this country now - it makes my blood boil! This criminal has existed purely on taxpayer funds, and now we have to support her and her child for the next 20 or 30 years - what a joke! what happened to the Great in Great Britain?
- Gary, amersham, 29/07/2009 09:41
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Not born here, spends a few years of her life here, goes to another country and commits a crime payable by death, gets herself pregnant and who has to pay for it?! The bloody Brits that's who.
I'm sick of paying for scum like this, just because she lived here and may have a British passport does not make her British. She is a low life that should either serve her sentance in Laos or Nigeria - let her choose - but not Britain, she's not wanted here.
Do the crime pay the time, or pay with your life if that is the law of the land!
- Me, North East England, 29/07/2009 00:21
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Welcome home, doll. We don't mind paying our taxes so you can live like a parasite.
- Geek Freak, Paris, Texas, 28/07/2009 21:36
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We don't need more scum importing into th UK.
We need to outsource our foreign prisoners to serve sentences in foreign jails - not the ones they come from !
- Cap, london, 28/07/2009 16:20
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great,serve 6 months,sell her story to a rag paper make thousands why we work our socks off for a paycut.
- George, france, 28/07/2009 16:17
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This conniving strumpet is NOT WANTED in this country. Send her to Nigeria, if they'll have her!
As for the child, that is the mother's responsibility not the British Taxpayers. She got herself pregnant, she knew exactly what she was doing, now she should be responsible for the provision of the child, I don't see why I should be paying for her offspring.
- Mrs, London UK, 28/07/2009 16:10
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another one for the taxpayer to look after,gets caught trying to smuggle drugs into the country for financial gain and ruin peoples lifes and we pick up the tab no wonder they call it the land of milk and honey,it makes you want to vomit
- Basil, bussiere poitevine 87320 france, 28/07/2009 15:33
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send her back to Nigeria.
- Squiz, Islington, 28/07/2009 15:32
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We don't want any more drug smuggling scum here. She go and live in Ireland with her Mum.
- Mark, South-East London, 28/07/2009 15:17
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Ms Orobator came to the UK when she was 12 and lived here for a few years before leaving the country and travelling. She is a convicted drug smuggler, have her serve her sentance back in Nigeria as she in not British and not our bloody concern! Why does ultra left thinking ignore facts and common sense?
- Dirk Diggler, Soho, London, 28/07/2009 15:04
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Why should she come back here, we dont repatriate criminals back from here. She did something wrong and got caught, she manipulated the system, saved her life by getting pregnant, which took some doing. She was prepared to carry the heroin - it is a drug which one way or another carries a very high price. The users wouldnt have got this much fuss and care.
Gary McKinnon should have had this 'special' treatment to say here Shame on this Government
- Amazonmothe, hasting, 28/07/2009 14:04
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