Pregnant U.K. Woman Could Face Firing Squad Death in Laos

[HiredGoon]

Wow, here's an interesting one. If she really was trying to smuggle drugs out of Laos, that was really stupid on her part (think "Midnight Express"). She doesn't deserve to die for it though. If not death, they'll probably keep her locked up for many, many years. HG

Pregnant U.K. Woman Could Face Firing Squad Death in Laos

LONDON (AP) ― A pregnant British woman who faces death by firing squad if she is convicted of drug smuggling could go on trial in Laos this week, a human rights group said Sunday.

Samantha Orobator, 20, has been in jail in Laos since August, when she was accused of trying to smuggle just over half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of heroin in her luggage.

The British-based human rights group Reprieve said Orobator has not had access to a lawyer yet.

Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris is in Laos trying to help Orobator. She told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday that she had been granted permission to meet with the jailed woman for the first time on Tuesday. But Morris said Orobator had been told the trial could start a day earlier — on Monday.

"We understand she's been told the trial will begin Monday," Morris said. "It is not confirmed."

Morris said the situation was tense.

"We are on the ground awaiting confirmation of what is exactly going to happen. Clearly the concern is that she doesn't know what is going to happen next," Morris said. "The stress on her, of course, being pregnant must be very high. We're very worried about the stress she is under."

The circumstances of Orobator's pregnancy remain unclear.

"She became pregnant in prison. We are concerned that it may not have been consensual and we are concerned that someone who finds herself in prison at 20 is subject to exploitation," Morris told CNN.

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

[chrisjames_71]

She is not getting the death penalty...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapc...rss_topstories

[str8shooter]

She's been imprisoned, raped, impregnated and may have to start her trial before ever meeting her lawyer. Not exactly the American system of justice and respect for human rights and no one should be treated that way regardless of the alleged crime, but I have one lingering thought I can't shake.

DON'T TRY TO SMUGGLE A F*ING POUND OF HEROIN OUT OF LAOS!

I feel horrible about what this young lady is going through, but she decided the risk of getting caught was worth the gains of getting away with it, and the world will now see that it wasn't.

How many times do people of the world need to read about situations like this before they'll realize that if they break the law in a foreign country, they will be treated like criminals in the country they are in, not citizens of the country from which they came if they are caught.

[1861]

And yet we worry about GITMO.