Fears for Briton facing 25 years jail for ‘smuggling’ back pain pills to partner
A BRITISH woman is facing 25 years in an Egyptian jail for transporting 290 painkillers for her partner’s sore back.
Laura Plummer, 33, has spent almost a month in custody after authorities there accused her of smuggling tramadol tablets into the country.
She was arrested after 29 packets of the drug, each containing 10 tablets, were found in her suitcase.
Ms Plummer could now face 25 years in prison for importing the banned substance.
In one court appearance, the possibility of the death penalty was mentioned.
Tramadol is on a list of Egyptian banned substances since 2015 after it replaced heroin and cannabis as the recreational drug of choice.
But Laura’s family claim she did not know it was illegal and said it was an honest mistake.
The shop worker from Hull had flown into Hurghada airport to visit her partner Omar, also 33, who lives there.
She is currently being held in a tiny cell with 25 other women – including prostitutes, drug dealers and murderers.
Laura’s family are pleading with authorities to free her after paying at least £10,000 in legal fees to lawyers who are said to have turned out to be bogus.
Her sister Rachel Plummer, 31, said: “Tramadol to Laura is just a painkiller – nothing more.
“She’s not the type of girl to commit a crime like this and everyone who knows her can’t believe it.
“She’s now living in a hell hole for a few packs of painkillers.
“When we last saw her in court Laura was unrecognisable.
“Her hair had fallen out with stress and she was blank behind the eyes.
“Laura can’t cope another hour – let alone 20-plus years.
“There are Egyptian women who are in there for what us British call proper drug-related crimes like heroin and cocaine but they come and go, yet she’s taken some painkillers across and is getting treated like it’s a million smuggler.”
The family said they were tricked into handing over £10,000 to fraudsters who pretended to be lawyers before disappearing with the cash.
Rachel claimed that a lawyer at the airport told her sister “if you don’t pay me £10,000 you will go to prison”.
Laura and her father Neville, 70, put up the money before the “lawyers” vanished.
A second lawyer was sacked by the family after they urged Laura to lie.
She is now being represented by a firm recommended by the British embassy in Egypt. pound
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A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are supporting a British woman and her family following her detention in Egypt.”
Laura’s other sister Jayne Sinclair, 40, said Laura was not married to Omar, who already has a wife and children.
Ms Sinclair said: “Laura isn’t a secret. She has met Omar’s family and children.
“But he has a Muslim wife and they only signed documents in Egypt that allow them to live together when she goes to stay.
“He doesn’t have a passport so can’t come to England.”
She added: “I don’t know much about him but he likes to take her out when she’s there.
“Even though she’s 33, she had never had a boyfriend before Omar.”