British Citizen Convicted of Smuggling Heroin from Laos to Australia, Will Not be Freed Immediately
Newswire Services
January 30, 2010
LONDON -- Samantha Orobator, the British woman convicted and sentenced in Laos in June 2009 for importing over 680g of heroin, did not suffer a "flagrant denial of justice" in the High Court´s judgment in a landmark case for fair trials abroad.
Ms Orobator was sentenced to life by a court in the Laos People´s Democratic Republic for smuggling 680g of heroin to Australia. She maintained that she was forced to do so by men who had repeatedly raped her and threatened her life. Orobator, who was 19 at the time of the offence, became pregnant while in custody in Lao´s notorious Phonthong prison in a desperate attempt to avoid the death penalty.
Ms Orobator was transferred to the UK under a prisoner transfer treaty between Laos and Britain. The terms of the treaty meant that Ms Orobator had to serve her life sentence in a British prison. In a landmark case, Orobator´s lawyers argued that European human rights law meant that her continued detention was an unlawful deprivation of liberty. Ms Orobator gave birth less than a month after arriving back in Britain, where she was incarcerated in Holloway prison.
Ms Orobator has always maintained her innocence, and Lord Justice Dyson – giving a judgment of the court – ruled that it saw "no reason to disbelieve her account".
Ms Orobator was sentenced to life by a court in the Laos People´s Democratic Republic for smuggling 680g of heroin to Australia. She maintained that she was forced to do so by men who had repeatedly raped her and threatened her life. Orobator, who was 19 at the time of the offence, became pregnant while in custody in Lao´s notorious Phonthong prison in a desperate attempt to avoid the death penalty.
Ms Orobator was transferred to the UK under a prisoner transfer treaty between Laos and Britain. The terms of the treaty meant that Ms Orobator had to serve her life sentence in a British prison. In a landmark case, Orobator´s lawyers argued that European human rights law meant that her continued detention was an unlawful deprivation of liberty. Ms Orobator gave birth less than a month after arriving back in Britain, where she was incarcerated in Holloway prison.
Ms Orobator has always maintained her innocence, and Lord Justice Dyson – giving a judgment of the court – ruled that it saw "no reason to disbelieve her account".
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