http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/laos.british.woman.death.penalty/index.html

A British woman who had been facing possible execution in Laos will escape the death sentence because she is pregnant, a spokesman for the Laotian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Samantha Orobator became pregnant in prison, according to a spokeswoman for rights group Reprieve.

The country's criminal law prohibits courts from sentencing pregnant women to death, spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing told CNN. The woman's trial hasn't been scheduled yet, he said, but is likely to happen next week.

Samantha Orobator, 20, was facing death by firing squad for drug trafficking, said Clare Algar, the executive director of Reprieve, a London-based human rights group.

She was arrested August 5, Khenthong has said.

Orobator was alleged to have been carrying just over half a kilogram (about 1lb) of heroin, Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris told CNN by phone from Vientiane, the Laotian capital. Those found guilty of carrying that amount normally face the death penalty, she said.

Reprieve has said Orobator became pregnant in prison, possibly as a result of rape, and that she is due to give birth in September. That would mean Orobator became pregnant in January.

Khenthong agreed that Orobator is five months pregnant.

But he indicated that Orobator might have already been pregnant when she was arrested, and that she lost the first baby while in prison.

1. He's facing the death penalty for drug trafficking.
2. She got pregnant in prison

There are too many things about the laws in the UK that I don't know about, apparently.

'There are too many things about the laws in the UK that I don't know about, apparently.'

This is nothing to do with our laws. She is British but is in prison in Laos. Therefore, she is subject to their legal system.

Ah, you're right. I must have overlooked it.

Haha that would be quite funny if all of a sudden you thought in the UK we used death by firing squad ;D

OMG. You thought this was in the UK? Gosh you typical American thinking we're living in medieval times over on our tiny little island! Haha. ;D

(That was sarcasm by the way. I know Americans don't generally think the UK is backward)

Well it said she was a british lady! :(

They have their math wrong. If she's due in September, she got pregnant late November to late December. If she got pregnant in January, she wouldn't be due until October.

Not that it really matters to the story, just shows they have their facts wrong.

Chances are the facilities ARE segregated, but that doesn't mean they don't have male guards. Chances are it was a guard that impregnated her.

My question is what happens after she has the baby? Will they enforce the death penalty then? Or will they let her go? Or will they make her raise her baby in prison?

on one hand, i hope they don't make her raise the baby in prison. everyone knows that's not a good place for a child to be, let alone to be raised there. but what she did was in no way good. they should make her carry the baby till term (or whenever she delivers), then take the baby away and kill her. there are plenty of families out there that would be willing to adopt that poor child.

Explain to me how drug trafficking would result in the DEATH penelty? Are they serious? I know it's a bad thing, but come on now, little over the edge if you ask me.

That, and why aren't the prisons segregated? Like, what if someone went to jail for rape and sexual assault? Would they just go to jail and do it again?

they should be segregated...could it have been a conjugal visit or one of the guards that impregnated her?

I think the obvious assumption is that one of the guards raped her.

lots of countries have death by firing squad for drug trafficking. it's pretty scary, but they have a no tolerance policy towards it. it's suppose to be a pretty huge deterrent, but yanno if idiots wanna do that and risk getting caught and shot then that's their business.

That's probably why they had some British girl do it, she probably wasn't aware of how severely she'd be punished.

It sounds like one of those stories you'd see on the show Locked up Abroad. Some foreign person doesn't know what they're getting into and gets conned into committing a really bad crime, gets fucked by the law and has to spend time in some really nasty prison for a while, or gets raped while on death row apparently.

Yeah a British man and women were imprisoned in Dubai last year for having sex on a public beach. Although in that case I have to think they should have educated themselves on local law beforehand.

Ignorance is not a plea.

I didn't say it was, some people should just use their common sense when they're doing something they know is wrong, but it's a likely scenario.

in australia i think most people are now aware of the risk after two big cases on drug smuggling to indonesia. the bali nine> and schapelle corby. you'd have to be fucking stupid or really desperate to do it now.

Oh gosh, Schapelle Corby. I got so sick of seeing her and her family in the media. Fair enough that they posted news items about her arrest and verdict, but then all that crap about her 'love affairs' in prison and stuff about her sister and brother and mum doing drugs? It was so Today Tonight. xD

I don't know if you ever heard of the Schapadlock - a padlock to keep your boogie board cover secure. xD

haha that's awesome.

That assumes that she was guilty of course. Plenty of people have been caught drug smuggling after others have stashed the drugs on them. And anyway, there's no way of knowing if she's guilty, because they haven't allowed her legal representation.

well i was thinking more along the lines of the bali nine [nine aussies that got caught with 8.3 kg of heroin trying to smuggle it to indonesia]. people taking a risk when they know there's a potential to get caught and killed for it. though the bali nine are lucky, most of them seem to have avoided the death sentence.

Makes you wonder if she slept around in prison just to get herself pregnant and therefore free from the death penalty!

Yep.