English girl facing firing squad in Laos

[rufus]

An Australian Singapore citizen was hanged in Singapore some years ago. I think Ulick may be refering to that event.

[aznyron]

personally I think you have to be nut case if you are putting your life on the line to smuggle drugs
into a country that will execute you if your caught. with that being said I do not share many of the posters views she knew the consequences and she took the gamble and lost now you have to pay for the crime

[wazza]

Jack.
When was the last time you can remember frang caught in Indoesia.

Sorry I think your referring to this case

1986 - Aust and English guys - Malaysia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barlow_and ... _execution

As for farang caght in Indonesia

Read this 9 Australians with 8.3 kg of Heroin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Nine

[wazza]

Ulick

Your statements are not supported with factual evidence, sorry

[Khun Paul]

lets just wait and see, I do feel that with some degree of luck or whatever she may escape the Death sentence, but as for repatriation that I doubt but you never know.

[ULICK MC GEE]

i stand corrected wazza on the 86 case on location and thank you for that.
The baili 9 are the luckest people alive today and the only reason they are alive today is because the aussie police ****** up,you see the aussie cop's had an informer who supplied them with times,dates etc and rather then do a controlled delivery aussie cop passed on all info to baili police which is normal .There was public,political outrage because the police had provoided info which led to the death sentence imposed on aussies and everybodt know's countries do not extradite to country's with death sentence so in aus general opinion was aussie police set the 9 a deth sentence it nearly brought down howards gov.Behind the scence's at the highest political whatever deal or groveling was done by aussie gov,the baili 9 got a reprieve.
Ihave no doubt otherwise they would have hanged all 9 and rightly so.

[beer monkey]

anyway back to the op..

Link



The latest..

Samantha Orobator, 20, was detained in August after allegedly being caught with 680 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin while trying to board a plane to Thailand.

Following a meeting with Laos's deputy premier, Thongloun Sisoulith, in London, Bill Rammell, a foreign office minister said the foreign secretary, David Miliband, had signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Laos.



"The deputy prime minister told me that the Lao government would consider Samantha eligible for transfer to the UK to serve out any sentence once the prisoner transfer agreement comes into effect," said Mr Rammell.

Miss Orobator's supporters, who say she fell pregnant while in prison in Laos, have voiced concerns she may not receive a fair trial and handed in a petition to Gordon Brown's office earlier.

Miss Orobator continues to be held in an unsanitary Laotian jail without access to a lawyer.

Although she has had no opportunity to give her version of events it is understood she denies the drugs were hers and may have been coerced into carrying them.

For several months British diplomats did not even know she had been detained and although a death penalty trial was scheduled to begin this week she has never seen a lawyer.

In Laos death by firing squad is the mandatory punishment for smuggling over 0.5kg of heroine, which is produced in the north of the country – " part of the notorious "Golden Triangle" poppy growing region.

Amid fears that Miss Orobator could be put to death, and under mounting international pressure, the Laotian authorities announced this week that pregnant women are not sentenced to death.

Anna Morris, a lawyer from Reprieve, a legal campaign group, who is in Laos but unable to meet Miss Orobator, said: "If that is right then why was it not communicated to the British Embassy in response to their representations, or to Reprieve, or most importantly to Samantha herself? She has been sitting in jail, pregnant since January facing the stress of a capital trial with no access to legal advice."

A British diplomat and a doctor visited Miss Orobator in prison on Wednesday amid concerns about her health and that of her unborn child.

The Laotian authorities have given few details about the case and repeatedly rescheduled the trial at short notice without explanation.

They recently claimed that Miss Orabator has already had one miscarriage in prison, although it remains unclear how she is getting pregnant in a supposedly women only facility.

The trial is now expected next week.

Laos is a communist dictatorship of 6 million people between Thailand, Vietnam and China.

[aznyron]

I don't know how much 680 grams is but if it what I am thinking how the hell did she hide that amount of drugs

[beer monkey]

1.5 pounds = 0.7 kilos.
a bag of sugar..1 kilo.

[letigger]

Apparently is was under her skirt hanging from pockets on a waistband (no confirmation of this).

The question is ....................................why risk flying to Bangkok, why not just get the bus back into Thailand across the friendship bridge, no one ever checks anything there !


Very strange

[beer monkey]

From the 'snippets' we have so far...it is strange.

[jingjai]

The question is ....................................why risk flying to Bangkok, why not just get the bus back into Thailand across the friendship bridge, no one ever checks anything there !

She's an idiot!
Probably a stoned idiot .

[LoongLee]

Jingjai,,,,, flying in gives her another 30 days visa? Yes, I know, it's stupid but look at who we're talking about here.

[westerby]

Dear Westerby, no I do not have access , like everyone else I read the English and world nationals and gather my arguments from these and other sources of info.

You believe the newspapers? Lawks oh Lordy, you're sadder than I thought.

[jackspratt]

i stand corrected wazza on the 86 case on location and thank you for that.
The baili 9 are the luckest people alive today and the only reason they are alive today is because the aussie police **** up,you see the aussie cop's had an informer who supplied them with times,dates etc and rather then do a controlled delivery aussie cop passed on all info to baili police which is normal .There was public,political outrage because the police had provoided info which led to the death sentence imposed on aussies and everybodt know's countries do not extradite to country's with death sentence so in aus general opinion was aussie police set the 9 a deth sentence it nearly brought down howards gov.Behind the scence's at the highest political whatever deal or groveling was done by aussie gov,the baili 9 got a reprieve.
Ihave no doubt otherwise they would have hanged all 9 and rightly so.

Once again your version of events its totally contrary to the facts.

Of the 9, 7 were originally sentenced to life imprisonment, and only the alleged ringleaders, Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death - by firing squad, not hanging.

Since then, a number of appeals and counter appeals have seen the sentences of the 7 varied in some cases, including a further 1, Rush, being upgraded to a death sentence.

Two further points:

1. the way the Indonesian court system works, there is no way the death sentences would have been carried out by now (look at the Bali bombers' case).

2. there is also no way this case "nearly bought down the Howard government". The next election after this case was in 2007, when the Howard government was roundly defeated (not nearly bought down), and the result had buggar all to do with the Bali 9.

You are consistently sprouting rubbish ULICK - time to clean up your act I reckon.

[ULICK MC GEE]

when a government is brought down it is because of a vote of no confindence in the cabinet and usually happens during it's term in office.
The opinion at the time in aus was that the police by suppling information to the baili police had sentenced them to death and as far as most of aus accussed the police of extradition to baili.
there was a lot of high level behinds the scenes talks between the two gov,why do you think all the appeals and counter appeals happen so quickly.Rush was traded for the others.
i never suggested baili had anything to do with howards defeat ,the fact remains this topic was disscused at lenght in aus house of paraliment and nearly ended in a vote of confindence which howard might of lost,that is how a government is brought down.
Thank you for your advice but if it's anything like your grasp of politics,i think i'll pass.

[jackspratt]

Stick to drinking Guinness ULICK - you have absolutely no idea about Australian politics or system of government.

A government in Oz can be bought down by a motion of no confidence in the Government - not the cabinet. It means the government no longer has the support of the majority of the members in the lower house, and must go to an election.

With a majority of around 27 in a 150 seat House of Representatives, and strong party discipline, there was no way in the world that Howard's government would have been bought down by a motion of no confidence for anything short of him rooting Queen Lizzie 2, or having desecrated the name of Don Bradman.

Your comprehension clearly ain't too good either - if you have another look at what I said about the Bali bombers, it was clearly in relation to the amount of time it takes for the Indo court/legal system to work.

[rufus]

"and must go to an election."

Not so Jack. The Govt does not HAVE to call an eletion according to the constitution. Under the Westminster system they SHOULD, but don't have to. The GG can dismiss a Govt if it does not.

[jackspratt]

You are correct rufus. "Should" is the better word, rather than "must".

Cheers

[beer monkey]

A thousand apologies for wandering off but back to original item if i may......

The prisoner Laos does not want

Awful as it sounds, being five months pregnant certainly helps her cause.

I was told in no uncertain terms Laos wants her case "to go away".

"The last thing we want here is a pregnant woman in prison," said a spokesman.

Jane Orobator has appealed for her daughter's release

He went on to explain that according to the law a death sentence cannot be handed down to an expectant mother.

Executions in Laos are rare anyway.

As to how she became pregnant while in custody, there are theories.

Rape was a conclusion many newspapers jumped to straight away. But she, herself, has said she was not raped.

I am told she is upset by the suggestion she was. There is also a scarcely believable story of her being deliberately and medically impregnated.

She may never say what happened, but "a fling" is how it has been described here.

In strong, controlled, communist states bureaucracy is also individual. As journalists we were surprised to be given official accreditation, and the government minder that comes with it.

Permission to film in or around prisons is always difficult, so it is perhaps not surprising it was denied.

But Laos knows the eyes of the world are watching; and those who care about image and reputation want the media to see they are following the rules and want to show Samantha can, at the very least, be defended at her trial.

A little more from the beeb....click Here

ok back to Australian politics..