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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to hope the Foreign Office don't waste any time on Laura Plummer...

684 replies

PiffleandWiffle · 26/12/2017 22:09

She was stupid enough to smuggle drugs into a country against their laws, got caught & got sentenced.

BBC Link

Cue the predictable wailing & cries of "it's not fair" from the family!

Personally, I'd rather the Foreign Office spent it's time trying to help people who are genuinely in trouble abroad rather than idiots drug smugglers....

OP posts:
makeourfuture · 27/12/2017 10:30

Yes, I think that is what the Foreign Office will protest. It does appear she was highly confused in court.

Well it is an important point.

The International Convention on Human Rights, of which Egypt is a signatory, guarantees the right to a fair trial and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal. This could be compromised by many things.

Egypt is ranked very lowly by experts on human rights. Areas such as treatment of women, treatment of prisoners and those accused.

Too, I would think there would be concern if there are questions about whether her status as a foreigner would make it harder on her - whether she was being targeted for beatings, rape or denial of food, etc. Either by officials and/or other prisoners. These are things the Foreign Office should be helping with and monitoring.

mydogisthebest · 27/12/2017 10:32

She quite likely had done it before and got away with it. She should do the time there and then face charges here.

ohfortuna · 27/12/2017 10:33

Surely she was working for someone else, ie the husband who coerced her in to smuggling drugs into the country for him
She took the risk on his behalf

A country as openly misogynistic as Egypt would be very happy to see a western woman punished rather than the Egyptian man who was behind the crime

noeffingidea · 27/12/2017 10:37

It's a fair sentence, IMO. She should get on with serving her sentence and learn her lesson.
Presumably the FO will stay in touch with her case should the situation change, can't see what else they should do.

321namechange · 27/12/2017 10:37

^^ *The indignation of the family and their MP is staggering."

I'm surprised the MP has come out so strongly as he was a barrister. I suspect she is as thick as you might guess.

lalalalyra · 27/12/2017 10:38

If the fuss around it was about the conditions in prisons abroad then I would be more behind it. Fact is people generally don't give a shit about the women in prisons in Egypt or Peru or wherever until they are housing some poor Brit who made a bad choice.

The involvement of the embassy should be distinctly limited to, as has been mentioned on the thread before, making sure someone gets the fairest trial etc. Not actively wanting rules bent for a Brit, which is what a lot of people seem to be calling for.

It might be better and safer for Laura Plummer to do her sentence in the UK, but I'd bet any money there are many other women in that prison who'd be equally deserving, or more so, of a transfer to less harsh conditions.

ILoveMillhousesDad · 27/12/2017 10:39

To those saying they have no sympathy she got what she deserved try and imagine how you would feel if this was your child

So where does that stop? Should we feel sympathy for every family who's adult child has been caught smuggling drugs illegally?

You play with fire, you're going to get burned.

Rebeccaslicker · 27/12/2017 10:40

The telegraph report says the boyfriend was in court and gave evidence to say he had a bad back after an injury - although of course he didn't go so far as to say he asked her for them - did I read that wrong?

makeourfuture · 27/12/2017 10:42

It might be better and safer for Laura Plummer to do her sentence in the UK, but I'd bet any money there are many other women in that prison who'd be equally deserving, or more so, of a transfer to less harsh conditions.

It seems Egypt and the UK are signed up to some sort of international prisoner exchange programme. So no "rules would be bent".

sashh · 27/12/2017 10:46

Why should the british taxpayer pay for her prison stay? It wasn’t even a British law that she has broken

Britain has reciprocal agreements with many countries so that prisoners can serve part of their sentence in the UK while we export prisoners to other countries. The cost of a prisoner is the same whether it is a UK or foreign national.

It's not always a better option. Sandra Gregory (got 25 years for smuggling) said that she would have been better staying in Thailand because she could walk outside rather than coming back to Britain as she was held in high security.

WaxOnFeckOff · 27/12/2017 10:46

Still not getting why as a brit she should get better treatment than anyone else in an Egyptian prison. I agree it shouldn't be worse but if we don't think conditions are appropriate then we should be trying to resolve that for all prisoners.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 27/12/2017 10:48

In UK ignorance of the law is no defence, I guess it's similar in Egypt

Mmmm. I wouldn't bet on that.

The "glamorous family" bit would pee me off too. If the thing that worries them most is that she can't keep getting hair extensions etc, then I think they are a very shallow bunch indeed!

makeourfuture · 27/12/2017 10:50

These translation problems are disconcerting. We cannot take family reports as fact (or any reporting for that matter).

If there were indeed mistranslations, then who knows what is true, or what Ms Plummer has said?

I would think that given the requirement for a fair trial requires proper translation, that the Foreign Office should now be helping with this appeal process.

RaindropsAndSparkles · 27/12/2017 10:50

I'm not sure the sentence is appropriate. My gran would have called her daft, my Mother stupid. I suspect she has learning difficulties and has received very little sensible guidance from her "glamorous" family.

Perhaps the UK needs to crack down on internet drug providers and look a little more closely at the inadequacies of the NHS in the 21st century that leads people to use those services.

AstridWhite · 27/12/2017 10:51

I think the news coverage has bordered on the racist

MrsDV What do you mean by that? Genuine question as I haven't read a huge amount about it.

AManWalksIntoABarOuch · 27/12/2017 10:52

I might get flamed but to those of you saying " I travel with x meds all the time because I haven't checked local regulations/law". Why? Why would it not occur to you to do a quick google? Of course drug laws vary from country to country! "I didn't know" is never an excuse.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 27/12/2017 10:52

To those saying they have no sympathy she got what she deserved try and imagine how you would feel if this was your child

I would be frantic with worry - but I'd also be bloody furious with my daughter and her shithead of a husband for getting involved in this in the first place!

ILoveMillhousesDad · 27/12/2017 10:53

I suspect she has learning difficulties

can I ask what has lead you to suspect this?

PersianCatLady · 27/12/2017 10:54

internet drug providers
I am almost certain that no legitimate online pharmacy in the UK will supply CDs from an online "consultation".

If anybody knows otherwise the feel free to explain.

PersianCatLady · 27/12/2017 10:55

To all those people who are saying it is unfair, how would you feel if the word painkillers was replaced with heroin?

AstridWhite · 27/12/2017 10:55

I suspect she has learning difficulties

You can bet your life if there was even the tiniest chance of that it would have been trotted out by now as a mitigating circumstance and used (quite rightly) as leverage to get her home.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 27/12/2017 10:56

Mr Turner (her MP, I think) also urged Egyptian authorities to "think very hard about what this means to people in the UK who are considering travelling (there)".

Rubbish - if I was going to holiday in Egypt, I wouldn't re-think because some stupid woman (NOT "girl") had smuggled in drugs and been caught and convicted.

Rebeccaslicker · 27/12/2017 10:57

I haven't read any suggestion of learning difficulties but her family do claim she's very naive, that this chap was her first boyfriend, and that she was still living with her mum in her old single bedroom at 33. Of course they would say she's naive, but she certainly doesn't sound like a worldly seasoned traveller. It sounds more to me as if someone helped her - what to get; how to get it; how to hide it in her luggage etc. But it should have raised a massive red flag for her, and google is all it would have taken.

Rebeccaslicker · 27/12/2017 10:58

The problem with turner's soundbite is that the ban on flights to sharm is having far more of an effect on brits flying to Egypt. And apparently Cairo is furious about that.