Britain Presses Laos Over Woman39s Drug Case
HANOI (AFP) –
British officials said they would continue to press for legal representation for a pregnant Briton expected to face trial in Laos on drug charges, but it was unclear when she would appear in court.
The British embassy in Bangkok said its vice consul in Thailand arrived in neighbouring Laos over the weekend to assist in the case of Samantha Orobator.
The embassy was “providing consular assistance, in particular to make sure Samantha does have good legal representation,” a spokesman said.
Britain's Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell has said he will also raise the case with the Laotian deputy prime minister when he meets him in London on Thursday, but campaigners have said they fear this may be too late.
Orobator, 20, was arrested last August after allegedly being caught with 680 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin while trying to board a plane to Thailand.
Under Laotian law, she could face the firing squad if convicted, although human rights watchdog Amnesty International has said that the Southeast Asian country has an effective moratorium on capital punishment.
Even the date of her trial was unclear, with the British diplomatic spokesman in Bangkok saying “all that we know is that it's not today.”
Earlier, Clive Stafford Smith, director of the justice advocacy group Reprieve, which is helping Orobator, said that she had somehow “managed to get a call through” and said the trial was set for Monday.
Khenthong Nuanthasing, a spokesman for the Lao government, said he heard similar information but could not immediately confirm it.
Reprieve said Orobator has received no legal representation, although one of their lawyers was to meet with her on Tuesday.
“This whole process is a farce. The trial is just being put on as a show. They wanted to get it all over with before she was able to see a British lawyer,” Stafford Smith added.
Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris arrived in Laos at the weekend and told Sky News she was to meet Orobator on Tuesday. However, she expressed concern the trial could go ahead before then.
Until now, the Nigerian-born Orobator has had no legal representation, Morris said, adding that she understood that in Laos, defendants were only allowed to meet their lawyers a week before the trial or even, in some cases, the day the trial starts.
“That has been our concern from the outset, that she has had no access to legal counsel before this week,” she added.
The British government said it only learned of Orobator's plight months after her arrest, but is now in regular contact with Laotian authorities.
Earlier, Orobator's mother expressed concern about the welfare of her daughter, who is due to give birth in September.
“I'm so scared, I'm so scared… I don't know what they are up to there,” Jane Orobator told Sky News television.
She added: “I learned she was pregnant. Before she was arrested she wasn't pregnant.”
Khenthong said that, as far as he knew, no foreigner has ever been executed in Laos.
In a statement last July, Amnesty International said there had been no executions in Laos since 1989. It urged the government to “go a step further by formalising the current de facto moratorium.”
