Pregnant British woman faces firing squad over drug charges

A pregnant British woman held in a Laos prison for nine months faces execution if she is convicted of drug smuggling next week.

Friends of Samantha Orobator-Oghagbon, 20, believe she may have been raped while in detention and now fear for the health of her unborn baby.

Ms Orobator-Oghagbon, 20, from south London, was arrested at the country's Wattay Airport on 6 August 2008 and subsequently became pregnant at the notoriously abusive women's prison. Next week she goes on trial after being accused of smuggling 680 grams of heroin, narrowly exceeding the statutory minimum for the death penalty in Laos. If found guilty, she could be sentenced to execution by firing squad.



Ms Orobator-Oghagbon left home in July 2008 for a holiday and, after visiting the Netherlands and Thailand, was arrested in Laos. She has consistently claimed that she was forced into carrying drugs for a third party. The legal charity Reprieve, which is trying to help the Briton, say there is no evidence that she was anything more than a "mule".

Reprieve says she has not had access to lawyers. British diplomats only learnt of her detention months after she was arrested. Since then she has been allowed to meet a consular official for 20 minutes every month, always with a guard present.

Ronke Oseni, 21, a psychology student at Kingston University, who has known Ms Orobator-Oghagbon for 11 years, said: "There is no one there to visit her, no one to talk to, she doesn't speak the language. I'm really scared for her. I can't even imagine what she's going through. The punishment does not fit the crime. They want to shoot her but what about the baby?"