There is something wrong in the case of Samantha Orobator, the pregnant British woman who could face death by firing squad in Laos if she is convicted of drug smuggling.
She has been in custody for nine months.
She is five months pregnant.
The Reprieve Charity lawyer, Anna Morrris has said:
British officials had only been able to visit Orobator for a period of 20 minutes once a month.
Australian Kay Danes told Sky News the conditions at the Phonthong prison were “horrific” and
“nobody went through that prison and didn’t suffer in some way”.
Ms Danes said: “We endured mock executions, waterboarding and torture.
“I watched my husband sit on a concrete floor with his legs in wooden blocks and they beat him with a steel tyre brace.”
She went on: “I saw young African boys who had their genitals burnt with fire.”
So, are we to assume that conditions are so horrific that the pregnancy can only be as a result of rape?
In which case even a miserly 20 minutes once a month is quite long enough to confide in those British officials who have been visiting her – and I would have expected them to be making urgent representations on her behalf – and making sure the media were well aware of the rape.
Or are the conditions not so horrific and it wasn’t rape?
Reprieve, the organisation which is funding Anna Morris in her search for a Laos counsel for Ms Orobator is some 40% funded by – grants from the Foreign Office to ‘provide assistance to Britons overseas who are facing the death penalty. Note, Reprieve are not actually providing that counsel, they are engaged in searching for a suitable counsel.
Remind me again, why do tax payers fund the Foreign Office? Is it not to provide assistance to Britons overseas amongst other duties? Do they not know who the local counsel are? Why are taxpayers funding yet another charity to do this for them? How does it manage to come as a surprise to them that Ms Orobator is pregnant – did they not enquire as to her conditions of confinement? In nine months we have heard nothing of Ms Orobator, nothing of any rape, nor even of this surprising pregnancy; suddenly Ms Morris is on a flight to Laos and the media is full of stories of ‘water-boarding’ and ‘torture’.
Where is Max Clifford? On a flight to Laos?