Samantha Orobator Won't Face Death, Due To Pregnancy: Laos

BANGKOK — A pregnant British woman accused of trafficking heroin in Laos will not face the death penalty because the law bans executing expectant convicts, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

The trial of 20-year-old Samantha Orobator would not be held until next week so that an "appropriate lawyer" could be found to defend her, Foreign Ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing said. It had been expected to start this week.

"It might take some time," Khenthong said by phone from the Laotian capital Vientiane, adding his government would try its best to expedite the case. He said the Justice Ministry was compiling a list of lawyers _ who must be Lao nationals _ from which she could choose.

Orobator was arrested in August and charged with trying to smuggle 1.5 pounds (680 grams) of heroin in her luggage.

Anyone caught in possession of over 1.1 pounds (500 grams) is subject to the death penalty, Khenthong said. "But there is another provision of criminal law ... that the death penalty will not apply to pregnant women."

The circumstances of Orobator's pregnancy remained unclear, though Khenthong said she told authorities in an interview after her arrest that she had become pregnant by her boyfriend.

The British legal charity Reprieve said Orobator was five months pregnant, but because she had no access to counsel they could not confirm that. A doctor sent by the Australian Embassy who visited Orobator in prison in March told Reprieve that she is due to give birth in September.

Reprieve issued a statement Tuesday saying its representative, Anna Morris, had been barred from entering Phonthong prison despite having been scheduled to meet Orobator.

"I am deeply frustrated by the lack of access to this vulnerable young woman. This is preventing Reprieve from obtaining firsthand knowledge of her welfare and how she is being treated in prison," the statement quoted Morris as saying. "We urge the Lao authorities to allow us access to speak to Samantha as promised, to appoint her a Laotian lawyer and to conduct a fair and open trial."

In a response e-mailed to The Associated Press, Khenthong said, "the Lao Government never denied ... access to Samantha," and that the group should recognize Laos "has its own law and rules" for seeing foreign prisoners.

Morris said Reprieve made a formal request to see Orobator through Britain's Foreign Office before she left for Laos. The British vice consul sent from neighboring Thailand also made formal requests on its behalf to the Lao Foreign Ministry, she said.

Khenthong said Orobator's trial will be open for all parties concerned, particularly the British consul-general and officials from the Australian Embassy, which handles British interests in Laos. Britain has no embassy in Laos.

Orobator had been in jail for months before the British government learned of her detention. British diplomats and doctors have since visited her, according to the British Foreign Office.

Laos is a one-party state and rights groups say the judicial system is beholden to the communist regime that has ruled since 1975.

Comments

[PresidentRobertBooth]

"If you can't do the crime (in Laos) don't do the crime"

It hasn't been even established that she did do the crime.

[AlligatorShuz]

This is sad being in prison in a communist country!

[Hank007]

There is a great show on TV called "Locked Up Abroad". It's one story after another about people usually young, duped into running drugs, often set-up, who get busted in foreign countries and what happens to them. Very enlightening and interesting. As mentioned, nobody does all this on their own.

[faith]

This "vulnerable" woman chose to carry heroin for eventual sale. Anyone familiar with the horrific problem with crack babies (some diagnosed as psychotic as early as kindergarten. Just ask parents who have adopted babies, only to discover that fact years down the road.) has little sympathy for this woman. No, I am not condoning her death, but dealing in drugs is dangerous business and it causes unbelievable pain and suffering to the innocent as well as the guilty.

[3dtrix]

Just to keep things sorted properly - crack (A smokeable and evidently highly addictive though nasty form of cocaine) is not heroin. Heroin is an opioid narcotic - essentially a powdered form of morphine - and cocaine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant. Opposites, really.

[OC4Obama4Pres]

So, you're another one for whom accused means guilty, right?

[Paz1980]

To be honest, though, when you traffic heroin, you're pretty much trafficking death and ruin to the lives of (albeit dumb, self-destructive) folks who buy it. I hate the idea of capital punishment but understand why she received such a sentence. And it was awfully reckless to try smuggling into Laos. You had to expect something like this to happen.

[kas70]

These are still allegations. The trial hasn't even happened yet.

[davidwayneosedach]

If you can't do the crime (in Laos) don't do the crime.

[MelRoy]

Laos is one of the worst possible places on the planet to get caught with drugs. Also not a good place to be if you get sick.

[GeorgeP922]

Plain and simple, this is the end product of America's rediculous and illegal drug war.

This is it, in the end, Third world countries lock up smugglers from 20 years(peru) to life (indonesia) to death (Laos).

If the UK respected their citizens they send troops in there to extract her.

[tom928]

How is this policy in Laos the responsibility of the US?

[kas70]

Glad to see the international exposure is helping Samantha's plight.

[MelRoy]

She sure needs it. I just wonder why it didn't happen earlier?

[mcle3002]

I find it almost laughable that some people are acting as if an uneducated, broke, 20 year old woman, got the idea of going to Laos by herself, booked the hotels and bought the airline tickets herself, and after reaching her final destination would then proceed to disrtribute and sell the drugs herself. No one is advocating who ever set her up in this, as well as other intermediaries to be hunted down. From some comments you would have thought she grew the poppy plants herself.

I can also assure you that those who are profitting off the multibillion dollar drug trade most likely look nothing like her and will most likely never set foot in a jail.

[MelRoy]

Do you mean the media? I don't know whether to laugh or cry about the media's coverage of this story. If you google her name, you come up with at least a dozen headlines screaming, "Raped in Prison, Pregnant Woman to Be Shot by Firing Squad!!!"

An Australian drug mule (another woman) was recently released from the same prison after serving four years. Laos does not only not execute pregnant women, it doesn't execute anybody.

Her first consular visit (by someone from the British Embassy in Bangkok) was on August 14, 2008 - she was in prison exactly one week. In the last nine months she has had 17 consular visits. She will have an attorney to represent her before her trial - a public defender. She will probably be found guilty and sentenced to 20 years to life, then have her sentence reduced on appeal. That's how it works in Laos. The Lao authorities allow other visitors to that prison. How do I know? Other prisoners' families visit and bring them extra food and other items. Samantha got another visit today from the British vice-consul.

Also, regarding conditions in the prison. They are awful. But I understand they have improved since the publication of a book by a former prisoner. I'm not listening to Reprieve. I'm sure they have good intentions, but too much of what is in the press is downright false.

[MelRoy]

One of the many questions which are yet unanswered is, who financed the trip? Someone in the UK, in Holland, in Thailand or even Nigeria?

There's a Ghanian man in the same prison sitting on "death row" (no intention to actually execute him). He told authorities he was given money to fly to Bangkok and meet a man there, who gave him $1,000, a return ticket to Laos and instructions for the pick-up.

[lynnn]

Oh man those wingnuts are going to be so upset that a non blue eyed person who is just ACCUSED will not die.

[roshni]

Seems like someone should do a little math and figure out what's going on in that women's only jail.

[MelRoy]

It's not a women's only jail. It's a mixed jail, the vast majority of prisoners are men.

[kas70]

Even so - the conditions of this prison do not seem conducive to consensual sex between the sexes while impotent or uninterested guards turn the other cheek.

[HuffEurope2]

Six months pregnant and been in jail for nine months.

[MelRoy]

HuffPost's Pick

Well, there is some good news to report.

Firstly, the death penalty is off the table. The Amnesty folks will say it's not that big a deal because the death sentence is a formality/­quasi-dete­rrent in Laos, because they never execute anybody. But it means that a commuted sentence could be less than life.

Secondly, the British government admitted it was alerted by the Lao authorities right after Samantha's arrest, and they have been visiting her in prison since August 14th of last year.

Next, Samantha is being given her choice of Lao lawyers from a long list and consultation pre-trial. It would be preferable if she could have a British lawyer, too, but better than having a lawyer appointed on the first day of the trial.

The British are now working on getting her extra food and medical care, due to her pregnancy.

Finally, it seems she was not forcibly raped in prison. I don't have much more information on that, just what I read in The Times today.

We will soon know the exact circumstances of Samantha's visit to Laos, and hopefully, who gave her the drugs. Let the tough lesson she is learning be a lesson to us all. When it comes to illegal drugs, trust NO ONE.

[roshni]

I'm not convinced she was not raped. Do we have any evidence of what happened in that prison?

[MelRoy]

According to The Times, she told her consular visitor she was impregnated by a "boyfriend". They did not go into details.

Bear in mind two things. Nobody has confirmed the stage of her pregnancy. She has been in prison exactly 9 months today. The other thing to bear in mind is, she is in a mixed-sex prison. I have no idea why so many in the media are telling out and out lies...oh, wait...led by the British tabloids, that would explain it.

The charity only found out about her case 2 weeks ago (why?). Now, they are jumping up and down because they can't see her. No foreigners in Laos have access to foreign lawyers. They give the prisoner a choice of public defenders, usually days before the trial starts. The system in Laos is very different to ours. They usually convict on the original charges, then the lawyer generally gets the sentence vastly reduced on appeal. After the original trial, the family can weigh in and work towards a reprieve. The reason? So the person will have a criminal record and never be allowed to enter Laos again.

[AngieMom57]

One small step for Samatha, one giant leap for humanity.

[nippyfan]

Amen!

[CR46]

She's lucky she wasn't in Texas.

[MelRoy]

She's got to be wishing she was in Texas. Just because there's some question as to whether she was forcibly raped or not, doesn't make the place a country club. There have been reports of torture in this prison and others in Laos, although again I have heard that conditions have improved somewhat since Dane's book was published. Most of the torture seems to be meted out to male prisoners. Of primary concern are the total lack of medical help, poor hygiene, diet, possibility of disease. A few people have died in that prison from illness.

Samantha Orobator is luckier than some. She has had consular visits from her first week in prison and she is going to have a speedy trial. She's unluckier than some - she's pregnant, she's too poor to buy a reprieve (yes, it happens there) and until now it doesn't seem anybody has been actively campaigning for her.