VIENTIANE, Laos, June 3 (UPI) -- A Laotian court Wednesday sentenced a British woman accused of smuggling heroin to life in prison, the British Foreign Office said.
Samantha Orobator, 20, was arrested last August at an airport in Vientiane, the country's capital, and charged with carrying about 1.5 pounds of heroin, CNN reported.
The Foreign Office said officials in Britain and Laos signed a prisoner transfer agreement last month, but details of the agreement were not disclosed, CNN reported. The Times of London reported Orobator was not expected to spend much more time in a Laotian prison because of the agreement but cautioned Laos officials could still veto her return to Britain.
Orobator is more than five months pregnant. The circumstances about how she became pregnant while in prison were unclear, CNN said. She was not pregnant when she was arrested, media reports indicated.
Laotian police claimed in the state-run newspaper Vientiane Times that Orobator said she secretly obtained sperm from another inmate to impregnate herself to avoid the death penalty, the Times reported.
Under the country's criminal law, a pregnant woman cannot be sentenced to death, the Laos government said.
