British Pregnant Woman Faces Firing Squad

I was reading a story in The Independent today about a 20-year-old British citizen, Samantha Orobator-Oghagbon, who is in prison in Laos awaiting trial for smuggling heroine.

Before I even talk about the story, I have to say the article in The Independent is littered with a ridiculous number of mistakes. I find it hard to believe that a major British newspaper has such poor editing. Maybe they will have cleaned up the article by the time you read this...

So this woman goes on what can only be described as a voyage of the stupid. She leaves the UK, and heads for the Netherlands. Famous for its drugs and dikes. Then goes to Thailand, famous for stupidly aggressive drug laws, and then finally ends up in Laos where she is captured carrying 680 grams of heroine.

Once arrested she goes directly to jail, to one of the harshest prisons in the country. Conditions there are inhumane to say the least. She is raped soon after she arrives and becomes pregnant. Meals there consist of two bowls of pig fat water soup, and some sticky rice each day. It was months before British officials were even notified of her arrest. She has not had access to a lawyer, and she is only allowed one 20 minute meeting with a British consular official every month, with a guard present at all times.

The jail is also famous for its lack of medical care. Several inmates have died, simply because they were deemed not sick enough to receive medical attention.

In Laos, the penalty of possession of this quantity of heroine is death by firing squad. A punishment that the government claim is necessary to deter drug smuggling.

Now in all fairness to this young woman, she claims she was forced to carry the drugs by a third party. This may well be true. But if she volunteered to go to Thailand or Laos of her own free will, I have very little sympathy for her. It seems that every year we hear of another tourist arrested in that part of the world because they found a tiny amount of drugs on their person, and now they get to spend thirty years in jail (assuming they avoid the death penalty).

The fact is, there are still some backwards parts of the world where morons make the laws, and a combination of religion, culture, and stupidity cause overly harsh punishments to be imposed on travelers, with little regard to actually convicting the guilty or protecting the innocent.

To me I cannot fathom why anyone would want to leave the competitive safety of a modern and progressive country, and travel to see 'exotic' parts of the world where shit like this is common place.

This young woman of 20 has already spent nine months in jail, and her life has already been destroyed. Even if she were released tomorrow, she will never be the same again. Even if she was complicit and guilty of this crime, she has already suffered far more than she deserves. But despite this news story, any many others like it, idiots with too much money will still jump on a plane and head off for an 'adventure' in these backwards shit hole countries.

People in the West need to wise up, and boycott these places, until they join this century and create a justice system.