SAMANTHA OROBATOR SENTENCED TO LIFE IN LAOTIAN PRISON

Such is the reality of the judicial system in a country such as Laos.

Samantha Orobator will not be facing a firing squad after all. There is work being done to bring here back to her home country, the United Kingdom. I wish her and her family well, even if she was a "mule" as some say, the underlying issues regarding drug use is more important than any sovereign nation's law, the United States included. Here is the write up, thanks to dailymail.co.uk.

A pregnant British woman has been convicted of heroin smuggling in Laos and sentenced to life in prison.
Samantha Orobator, 20, could now return to the UK within a week under a prisoner transfer agreement.
She avoided a mandatory death sentence by becoming pregnant during the ten months she spent in jail after being caught with 1.5lb of heroin at an airport in the capital, Vientiane.
Execution of pregnant prisoners is banned in Laos. Mystery surrounds how she was able to conceive. She was in a mixed-sex jail, but men and women are held separately.
A state-run newspaper in Laos claimed she impregnated herself by secretly obtaining sperm from another prisoner.
Orobator, from South London, is understood to be nearly 28 weeks pregnant after which she is not supposed to fly.
Her lawyers have advised her not to appeal against her sentence so she can fly to Britain as soon as possible.
Moves to bring her back will begin today.

Read the rest at the link above...Peace Searchers...

TRIAL TO BEGIN IN LAOS OF PREGNANT BRITON FACING FIRING SQUAD

When I wrote about Samantha Orobator previously, I promised I would keep abreast of the situation. This is an absolutely nightmarish situation for the young lady as well as her family. I don't care about the law of any sovereign nation; most drug issues are social issues, not criminal. From CNN:

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A pregnant British woman held on drug-smuggling charges in Laos will go on trial Wednesday, the British Foreign Office said, citing the government of the south-east Asian country.

Samantha Orobator, 20, was jailed last August at the airport in the Lao capital Vientiane and charged with carrying about half a kilogram of heroin. She is more than five months pregnant, and legal aid charity Reprieve -- which has worked on her case -- is urging that her case be resolved and she be allowed to return to England before she enters the third trimester of pregnancy on June 6.
Britain and Laos signed a prisoner transfer agreement last month, the British Foreign Office said but refused to disclose its details.
Orobator became pregnant in prison under circumstances which remain unclear.
She told her mother she was not raped in prison and that the father was not a Lao prison official, Jane Orobator said May 19 after visiting her daughter. Watch Jane Orobator describe learning about her daughter's arrest »
A newspaper run by the Lao government reported Tuesday that Orobator said she impregnated herself with the sperm of another prisoner being held in the same jail.
A Reprieve spokeswoman said the charity did not know if the newspaper report was true.

"We haven't seen her to confirm this, but are keen that this issue -- which is irrelevant to the case -- does not delay or affect the trial," Katherine O'Shea told CNN via e-mail. "Our first priority is the health of mother and baby, which means swift trial and return to the UK."
The British Foreign Office refused to comment on the newspaper report, saying it would not be able to talk about the case until the trial ends. Watch what's known about Samantha Orobator »
A spokeswoman said the British government did not know how long the trial would last. She declined to be named, in line with policy.

YOUNG PREGNANT WOMAN FACING DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD IN LAOS

Caught this on the Field Negro, and chased it down via Google. It's a frightening story about a young woman caught in a country that doesn't afford people the same rights as we are used to in the United States, such as right to counsel.

She's been in a Laos jail accused of smuggling heroin and apparently Laos law dictates death for anyone caught carrying over 500 grams; she allegedly had 680. That's a little over a pound. The Laotian government has not allowed attorney contact with Miss Orobator.

From the Field:

According to the telegraph.co.uk, Miss Orobator, 20, from London was arrested last August at Wattay airport in the south east Asian country.

Prosecutors claim she had 680 grams (1.3lb or 21 oz) of heroin in her luggage.According to the legal campaign group Reprieve she has not met a lawyer since she was arrested 9 months ago but it is believed that she denies the drugs were hers.

Under Lao law the death penalty is mandatory for possession of over 500 grams of heroin. At least 39 people have been sentenced to death for a variety of offences since 2003.On Thursday, without warning or explanation, the government of Laos rescheduled Miss Orobator's trial for next week, but they have still not announced which day the case will begin. "

More here.

So the young lady has been in jail since last August, and she's five months pregnant.

Clearly she got pregnant while locked up, which again begs the question posed elsewhere: was she raped? This is an absolute nightmare for her mother: from New York Daily news:

From her home in Dublin, Orobator's mother Jane Orobator told The Associated Press that she just wanted her daughter home."I'm terrified. I'm scared," she said in a telephone interview. "I'm just begging they should not do anything to her. They should just send her back to me."

Read the story at the link above or here.

As much as I bitch about our system in the U.S., we do have considerable more accountability from our police and judicial system, (and our system puts the burden on the government, not the citizen) than others do around the world. It makes me glad I live in the U.S., at the same time it makes me want to demand more accountability from our police forces, judges, and politicians.

Hold this young lady in your thoughts and prayers and follow this story, help get it out.

Peace-

image

thanks to nydailynews.com

BAILOUT BILL

I'm not in favor the the bailout proposal. In fact, this is nothing more than giving a Heroin addict a shot while he is going through withdrawal. It may quell the withdrawal symptoms, but it aint gonna fix the underlying problem.

Here is the problem: Unrestricted and unregulated Capitalism and the greed it nurtures and encourages.

Let's throw away the rig.

It is time for a systemic change in the United States.

Peace