A pregnant woman from London on Wednesday avoided the death penalty but was instead sentenced to life in prison for heroin trafficking after a half-day trial in Laos, a British embassy spokesman said.
Judges found Samantha Orobator, 20, guilty of trafficking 680 grams 1.5 pounds of heroin last August, when she was caught trying to board a plane to Thailand, the spokesman said, confirming: "It's a life sentence."
Normally, anyone found with more than 500 grams of heroin faces the death penalty in Laos.
But Lao Deputy Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith assured British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell during a meeting in London last month that a pregnant woman would not receive the death sentence, Rammell said previously.
He had also said that if Orobator were convicted she could serve her sentence back home under a newly signed prisoner transfer agreement.
The embassy spokesman told AFP that consular staff would be seeking access to Orobator to discuss her options. He was unable to comment further except to say that she can also decide, within 21 days, whether to appeal.
British legal charity Reprieve, which earlier sent a representative to Laos in a bid to assist Orobator, has said she is due to give birth in September.
Witnesses said the trial lasted a little more than three-and-a-half hours, including a half-hour period in which the three judges considered their verdict.
Orobator was represented by a local lawyer and proceedings were translated into English, the witnesses said. It was not clear what her reaction to the verdict was.
Lao government spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing could not be reached and his office said he was out of the country.
Khenthong previously told AFP that authorities were investigating how Orobator became pregnant while in custody and that Lao officials appeared to want an answer before her case was heard.
The Vientiane Times newspaper quoted unnamed police as saying Orobator had allegedly admitted impregnating herself with the sperm of another prisoner "to avoid the death penalty."
Most Laotian media only put out news that is favourable to the communist regime, according to a report last year by global press watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
In addition, trials in Laos "do not meet international standards of fairness", human rights watchdog Amnesty International said last month.
In late May, Orobator's mother, Jane, said her daughter was not sexually assaulted in prison and that the father of her unborn child was not a Lao prison official.
Jane Orobator made the comments in a statement issued through the Foreign Office in London after visiting the detained woman, saying her daughter was "looking well."
The mother attended Wednesday's trial but declined to comment, a witness said.
Landlocked Laos, a country of about seven million people, is one of Asia's poorest nations.
A Siberian tiger cub is seen with its mother at a zoo in China. REUTERS/China Daily
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