Briton jailed for smuggling in Egypt ‘on verge of a breakdown’
A BRITISH woman jailed for three years in Egypt for smuggling drugs is on the verge of a breakdown after being sent to a prison “full of jihadi terrorists”, her family said yesterday.
Laura Plummer, 33, a shop worker from Hull, was arrested in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada after she was found to have 290 tramadol tablets in her suitcase, a painkiller which is legal in the UK but banned in Egypt.
Ms Plummer’s family said she was taking the tablets for her Egyptian partner, who suffers from severe back pain and had no idea that what she was doing was wrong.
Jayne Synclair, her sister, said she feared she would not survive three years in prison. “Laura isn’t the strongest of people, she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” she said. “She’s been bitten from head to foot in mosquito bites and she’s like a ghost. Her skin is translucent and the muscles in her legs don’t work – they’re like jelly.”
Mrs Synclair, 40, said Ms Plummer had been sent to the infamous Qena prison north of Luxor. It houses some of the most dangerous inmates in the country, including Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and Muslim Brotherhood members.
“They have slyly taken her to where the British Foreign Office told us she would never be placed,” she said.
“Our biggest fear with this scenario has been confirmed: she will be sharing a tiny cell with jihadi terrorists and rapists. I honestly dread to think. Laura won’t survive a day in there – let alone three years.”