CNN is reporting a troubling story from Laos, where a 20-year-old British woman is facing possible execution by firing squad. She is charged with drug trafficking, and is alleged to have been caught in possession of heroin at Wattay airport:
Samantha Orobator “is facing death by firing squad for drug trafficking,” said Clare Algar, executive director of Reprieve, a London-based human rights group.
Orobator, 20, was arrested on August 5, said Khenthong Nuanthasing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman.
She was alleged to have been carrying just over half a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of heroin, Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris told CNN by phone from Vientiane, the Laotian capital. “For that amount of heroin the sentence is normally the death penalty,” she said.
Apparently Ms. Orobator has also become pregnant while in custody; one suspects that this is, perhaps, not voluntary family planning.
It’s hard to know what to say about this sad story. If the charges are accurate, then Ms. Orobator’s foolishness in attempting such a thing seems almost Darwinian in scale, though good judgment at age 20 is exceedingly rare. One has to imagine, though, given the venue and circumstances, that there is probably much more to the story (women are often victims of various forms of deceit or coercion in such cases). In any event, execution certainly seems cruelly harsh.
One particularly disturbing aspect of this item is that American readers apparently still need to be told that a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.
2 Comments
I have pity for Laos and the poor people there. Drug smuggling leads to corruption and addiction. Laos has both those problems and has nowhere near the resources to fight or treat the problems.
I don’t have any pity for an African who enjoyed asylum and opportunity in England and Ireland and yet grew up to smuggle dope. No pity for her at all. Getting pregnant is nothing special it does not change what she did. It might make authorities postpone her execution until the child can be delivered. Otherwise don’t spare her.
“Alleged” smuggling, Whether she did or not, I’ve no clue. But I (realizing I’m not in Laos) would presume her innocent until an “uncorrupted” jury found she did.