Group urges Brown to fight for Laos prisoner
Human rights campaigners urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown today to do what he could to secure the release of a pregnant British woman being held on drugs charges in a Laos prison.
Samantha Orobator, 20, potentially faces the death penalty if found guilty of smuggling heroin at an upcoming trial. She has been held in a prison in Laos since her arrest at Wattay airport in August 2008 and is five months pregnant.
Laos' deputy prime minister has flown to London for talks with foreign office officials on the issue, with Britain, which has long opposed the death penalty, insistent that no such punishment should be handed down if she is found guilty.
Reprieve, a prison rights charity that campaigns against capital punishment, will deliver a letter to Brown's office today calling on the prime minister to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on the Asian country's government.
As well as insisting that Orobator will not face the death penalty if convicted, Reprieve is pushing for her to have access to a lawyer, which has so far been denied.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
No comments:
Post a Comment