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Prisoner transfer urged for pregnant Briton in Laos

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-06 14:49

LONDON -- Lawyers for a pregnant British woman facing drug charges in Laos are urging the government to pursue the option of a prisoner transfer deal when a Laos minister visits London this week, they said Tuesday.

An undated photo provided on May 4, 2009 by the justice advocacy group Reprieve shows Samantha Orobator in an unknown location. Lawyers for the pregnant woman facing drug charges in Laos are urging the government to pursue the option of a prisoner transfer deal when a Laos minister visits London this week, they said Tuesday. [Agencies]

Clare Algar, executive director of legal charity Reprieve, said a diplomatic solution was the "best hope" for 20-year-old Samantha Orobator, who faces the threat of a death sentence if convicted.

"We ... heard that a prisoner transfer agreement was in the offing. We very much hope that the British government will chase that," she said, adding that Lao authorities "seemed to say that they could sign it tomorrow.

"One way of solving this would perhaps be via diplomatic correspondence... I think that is very much Samantha's best hope," she told Sky News television.

Speaking to the BBC, Algar said of a prisoner transfer deal: "We would wholeheartedly support that, in that it would bring Samantha back to the UK.

But she added: "Obviously there is also the question of guilt or innocence, and if she is not guilty she should obviously be released immediately. We hope that the British government will drive that point home on Thursday," she said.

The Foreign Office confirmed that junior minister Bill Rammell -- who said at the weekend that Britain had voiced its concerns "at the highest level" with Laos -- is to hold talks with Laos' deputy prime minister on Thursday.

"This case and other bilateral issues will be raised in that meeting," said a spokesman.

Orobator was detained in August after allegedly being caught with 1.5 pounds of heroin while trying to board a plane to Thailand. Normally anyone found in Laos with over 500 grams of heroin faces the death penalty.

But a Lao government spokesman said Tuesday that she may escape the death penalty because she is pregnant. A judge will decide on the sentence at her trial, said the spokesman, Khenthong Nuanthasing.