Mother flies to Laos for daughter’s trial

THE Ireland-based mother of a pregnant woman facing trial in Laos for alleged heroin smuggling is flying to the Asian country today to be with her daughter.

Samantha Orobator, whose mother Jane and three sisters live in Dublin, will be tried on charges of drug-smuggling, and is only avoiding a possible death sentence because she fell pregnant while in custody.

Yesterday, a British legal rights agency said it expected the trial to begin today or tomorrow, despite its representative still not having met the 20-year-old Briton.

Also, yesterday, Jane Orobator, who lives in Castleknock, revealed she was due to leave Ireland today bound for Laos.

Friends helped raise the money for the airfare and will look after her other three children as she attends the trial. However, it is still unclear whether the trial will begin this week or if she will be allowed to support her daughter in the courtroom.

Jane Orobator said she hoped to be able to stay for the full duration of the trial, adding: “I want to stay to the end [but] I will not know until I get there – let us hope so.”

Anna Morris, a legal expert with the Reprieve organisation, was due to meet Samantha yesterday, but the meeting was called off 30 minutes before it was scheduled to happen.

The meeting is instead due to take place at 2pm local time today, with Ms Orobator’s family hopeful that a prisoner transfer agreement recently signed between Britain and Laos will facilitate her return from the Asian country.

She has been in prison in Laos since her arrest on charges of smuggling heroin last August, and is five months pregnant. She is being held at the notorious Phonthong Prison, but no legal representative had been appointed until last Thursday. Her lawyer only met with her last Friday ahead of a possible trial this week.

Samantha, who had been living in London with her aunt, was charged with trying to smuggle 1.5lb of heroin in her luggage. Anyone caught with more than 1.1lb normally faces a mandatory death sentence, but she will not face the death penalty if convicted because the country’s law bans executing pregnant prisoners.

In the House of Commons in London, the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Abolition of the Death Penalty will meet to discuss the case today. Contributing will be a life-long friend of Ms Orobator and a psychologist. Ms Morris will also contribute via video link, and said Ms Orobator had been cheered by the efforts being made on her behalf by British authorities.

“She is very happy that people are here helping her and very grateful for the intervention of the British government. But she is very worried about her unborn child, as are we, because the baby has done nothing wrong.”