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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:
hmmwhatatodo · 27/12/2017 18:53

She does have the look of gormless about her. I’d love to know how she first met him (given that she still lives at home, never had a boyfriend before blah blah blah). Was she there with her family who thought ‘ah, a young Egyptian hotel entertainer, marvellous.’ How does she get into such a situation where she is signing silly contracts to live with an already married man who has children and other bits on the side in a country she travels to every few months?! Pity the family didn’t show concern to the ridiculous situation she was in then. Or is it because he is good looking and therefore good enough for their glamorous family?

I feel very sorry for her. She is in an awful place now. Of course the medicine was for selling over there and of course it was all his idea. He totally saw her coming.

untoldstories · 27/12/2017 18:53

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LizzyButton · 27/12/2017 18:54

Because it’s interesting? Obviously not to everybody. She also might have broken the law in the UK.

I’m drawn to this case more than for the normal regulation 5 minutes because:

I’ve been to Egypt twice and have noticed relationships that appeared to be similar to this.

“There but for the grace of God...” airport security / foreign jail feelings.

The family are mounting a spirited defence and dressing up for it.

It just doesn’t add up.

DorisDangleberry · 27/12/2017 19:03

untoldstories don't beat about the bush, say what you mean

SchadenfreudePersonified · 27/12/2017 19:19

People on this thread have wanked on about the cases of the Chennai Six and Nazarnin Zhaghari-Ratcliffe but the FO didn't give a shit. But why do you think their cases are more deserving? It's only because their families have gone on about it.

No - it's because they DIDN"T BREAK THE LAW!

And Nazarnin, as far as I am aware hasn't even had a trial of any sort.

And the Chennai Six had what was effectively a political show trial FOLLOWING a court decision that there was no case to answer.

mustbemad17 · 27/12/2017 19:26

Shaden you're spot on there. For anyone to even think that LP deserves more help than the examples above is mind boggling

LazyDailyMailJournos · 27/12/2017 19:32

The pills were disguised in paracetamol cases and she'd got them from a colleague. So from the start she knew that she was doing something wrong - because it's a prescription drug in the UK that isn't available OTC.

And whilst her family might argue that she was naive and didn't know, the Egyptian husband will have known. And if she was bringing the pills in for him then why on earth wouldn't he have told her? I find it highly unbelievable that she just happened to hide them in paracetamol packets if she didn't know that they were banned meds.

60% of patients entering rehab are doing so for tramadol addiction - link - and Egypt banned it specifically to try and address the black market that sprung up - link

So I'll save my sympathy for the families of the people whose lives are being wrecked by addiction, instead of a privileged Westerner who - through ignorance or otherwise - thought that the law did not apply to her.

And on a final note; if she was so naive and unworldly, why the fuck were her family letting her fly off to see her 'husband' in a country which has notoriously strict drug laws and a very poor record on human rights?

RoseWhiteTips · 27/12/2017 19:32

Eltonjohnssyrup

I think it would be quite nice if they could arrange for her to serve her sentence in a British jail so she could see her family.

Nice? Nice if she could call the shots?
Lol

ScouseQueen · 27/12/2017 19:32

Nazarnin, as far as I am aware hasn't even had a trial of any sort.

IIRC Nazanin Zahari-Ratcliffe had a trial but held in secret and conducted by suspect/biased legal officials. Hers is a true case of injustice and corruption. Laura Plummer's is not.

Butterymuffin · 27/12/2017 19:34

I'd have been having strong words with any daughter of mine who decided they were going to conduct a long distance relationship with an already-married Egyptian man, even before the issue of transporting drugs came into it.

untoldstories · 27/12/2017 19:36

No one has said she deserves more help than those other people, just that she might need a bit of help.
Y'know, like anyone of us might want for a family member who found themselves in trouble in a country far away and being sentenced to three years in a prison that would make the Victorians reel.

Piggywaspushed · 27/12/2017 19:49

The paracetamol packets thing is now being trotted out as gospel; truth on this thread I note. It has not been written in a single British journal of repute.

btw, if you read the delightful comments in the DM there are those who think Mr Ratcliffe is also weeping and wailing, and that his wife is a spy. Some people have no sympathy or compassion for anyone.

mustbemad17 · 27/12/2017 20:02

Piggy i'm pretty sure the paracetamol thing was in one of the papers. Not saying that makes it true but it clearly came from somewhere.

From what i can gather LP has been given every curtesy that her British status affords her...speedy trial, legal assistance etc. Being a Brit doesn't however mean that you get to break the law in a foreign country & then be extradited to a cushty prison because you don't like the prisons abroad. To the people suggesting she should be serving her sentence here because of the inhuman conditions in Egypt...do you actively back movements to change those conditions for citizens over there?

RaindropsAndSparkles · 27/12/2017 20:07

I'm really hoping for good news for the Ratcliffe's. I would love for us to form a circle of love for them and a circle of kindness for all others held overseas, rightly or wrongly.

Crumbs1 · 27/12/2017 20:10

She’s rather fortunate she wasn’t convicted of drug dealing which carries a death penalty in Egypt. She was charged with possession of an illegal sentence and only given three years.
I felt a bit sorry for her as she must be quite dim but she knew she was contravening both UK and Egyptian drug laws. Her drug dealing could ruin someone’s life. She’ll survive three years and hopefully come out a little wiser. I wouldn’t be signing a petition in support of her.

Piggywaspushed · 27/12/2017 20:30

crumbs at present her lawyer is not entirely clear what she has been sentenced for.

The paracetamol packet was reported here by one local paper which was reporting / copying from an Egyptian ( I think ) paper.

untoldstories · 27/12/2017 20:34

RaindropsAndSparkles

That is so lovely, we should form a circle of love all around the world for everyone ever I think.

Tistheseason17 · 27/12/2017 20:43

I'm backing Nazarnin. One of my DFs knows the family and she was just visiting family as she had before. Boris effed it up and now they're lives are in this frozen unjust hell.

Unlike L.P. who broke the law in Egypt and here, too. Her sentence was lucky, considering she obtained controlled drugs by deception.. this has not been denied/proven incorrect as far as i can see? No sympathy.

RaindropsAndSparkles · 27/12/2017 20:47

OK new thread.
Can't link but am starting.

RaindropsAndSparkles · 27/12/2017 20:50

Done.

DorisDangleberry · 27/12/2017 21:40

I think it is an absolute disgrace. There are many people who would jump at the chance of escaping the hellhole that is Hull and getting an all expenses paid stay in an Egyptian luxury jail.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 27/12/2017 21:50

"Ere! - There's nowt wrong wi' 'Ull! Xmas Angry

EmmaGrundyForPM · 27/12/2017 21:54

Except that Brian came from Hull Grin

SchadenfreudePersonified · 27/12/2017 21:55

Aye - well . . .

Exceptions proves the rule Xmas Grin

Tipsntoes · 27/12/2017 21:58

It's all very odd and there's something that doesn't add up IMO.

Her story doesn't ring true at all but OTOH, although 300 tablets is a lot and they clearly weren't obtained legally, it's not enough to make these regular trips to Egypt commercially viable. So what was it all about?