Samantha Orobator arrives at Heathrow airport. Photograph: APSamantha Orobator arrives back in UK and is taken to Holloway prison to complete sentence
Esther Addley and Sam Jones
guardian.co.uk
Friday 7 August 2009
Samantha Orobator, the pregnant British woman who was jailed for life in Laos for smuggling heroin, described her ordeal as an "unimaginable nightmare" as she returned to the UK today.
The 20-year-old from Peckham, south London, was handed over to British officials yesterday in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, after an agreement was reached between the Foreign Office and the Laos government. She landed at Heathrow airport just before 7am.
In a statement released this afternoon, she said: "I would like to thank all those who were involved in my return, including various British government officials, for their efforts on my behalf and for their support.
"Meanwhile, I would be grateful for a little peace as this has been a very traumatic experience both for me and for my unborn child."
Orobator, who has been permitted to serve the rest of her sentence in the UK, was met by a waiting prison van as she got off the plane. Wearing a white hat and loose trousers, she laughed as she stepped onto the tarmac along with three travel companions.
Uniformed police stood by as she was led into the van to take her to Holloway prison, which has a mother and baby unit. Her return to the UK comes in time for the birth of her child, which is due next month.
Orobator faced a death sentence after being caught with 680g (1.5lb) of heroin at Vientiane airport last August. She was spared a firing squad after becoming pregnant in circumstances that remain unexplained while in the women-only wing of Phonthong prison.
Orobator was allowed to transfer to Britain after the Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant travelled to Laos last week and signed a memorandum of understanding.
A spokesman for the charity Reprieve said Orobator, who travelled with a midwife and representatives from the Ministry of Justice, would undergo health checks when she arrived at Holloway. She was due to meet her lawyers at about 8am to discuss her case. Her mother was flying in from Dublin in the hope of seeing her.
Katherine O'Shea, of Reprieve, said: "When she arrives at Holloway she will have some health checks and then hopefully her family will be able to see her. Her mother really hopes she will be able to see her but at the moment she does not know if that's going to be possible – we will have to wait and see."
Her MP, Harriet Harman, said she was "relieved" at Orobator's return. Khenthong Nuanthasing, a spokesman for the Laos foreign ministry, said the prisoner's return was a humanitarian gesture taking her pregnancy into account.
A second British prisoner, John Watson, 47, remains in custody in the country. Reports have suggested he smuggled his sperm to Orobator to make her pregnant and save her life. Bryant said he was concerned for Watson's health.
Watson was transferred from Phonthong prison some time ago, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said, but "the Lao authorities have not given us information as to where he is being held". Human rights campaigners fear that he may have been transferred to a worse prison as punishment.
British officials have received assurances that he will be transferred into British custody "in the very near future". Watson was arrested in 2003 and is serving life for trafficking amphetamines, which carries a lesser sentence than heroin.
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