Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
A five months pregnant Nigeria-born Briton, Samantha Orobator, 20, will face execution if found guilty at a hastily arranged trial in Laos next week, according to reports. She was arrested at Wattay Airport in Laos last August for allegedly possessing 600g of heroin while on holiday travels.
She became pregnant in jail and due to deliver in September, but a death sentence next week would change all.
Britain’s Foreign Office has said it was working to ensure lawyers have access to the young woman. “We are providing consular assistance to Miss Orobator, in particular to help ensure that she has good legal representation. We are paying close attention to her welfare and are in regular contact with the Laotian authorities about her case,” Foreign Office Minister, Bill Rammel, had said, according to the Nigeria News Agency.
Rammel also revealed that British embassy officials have visited Samantha six times since her arrest and Australian embassy officials have also visited her ten times. Rammel further said he would be discussing the issue with Laotian Deputy Prime Minister when they meet in the UK on Thursday.
But Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve director, said the trial will be over by the time the two diplomats meet. He believes the trial had been brought forward by a year in an apparent attempt to hinder Samantha from seeing a lawyer.
Calling on the British government to immediately act to save the life of the expectant mother, Smith also questions how she could have become pregnant in jail.
Samantha has been held since her arrest at the notorious Phonthong prison, where inmates have complained of being beaten and abused.
She was born in Nigeria but moved with her parents to England at the age of eight and had since become a British citizen. She was a medical student at Kingston University.
A five months pregnant Nigeria-born Briton, Samantha Orobator, 20, will face execution if found guilty at a hastily arranged trial in Laos next week, according to reports. She was arrested at Wattay Airport in Laos last August for allegedly possessing 600g of heroin while on holiday travels.
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