Detained Briton's pregnancy investigated

Lao authorities are investigating how a British woman facing trial on a drug charge became pregnant while in custody, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Samantha Orobator, 20, was detained in August after allegedly being caught with 680 grams of heroin while trying to board a plane to Thailand.

The British legal charity Reprieve, which sent a representative to Laos in a bid to assist her, has said she is due to give birth in September. How she became pregnant while in custody remains unclear.

Lao authorities want to know who the father is and under what circumstances she became pregnant, said government spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing.

"The Lao authorities concerned, they do not want to be blamed", he said.

The woman's mother, Jane Orobator, said her daughter was not sexually assaulted in prison and that the father of her unborn child is not a Lao prison official.

Jane Orobator made the comments in a statement issued through the Foreign Office in London on Tuesday after visiting the detained woman.

She said her daughter was "looking well."

Mr Khenthong said the date of Orobator's trial had still not been set and that it appeared Lao officials wanted to know how she got pregnant before the case is heard.

Normally, anyone found in Laos with more than 500 grams of heroin faces the death penalty.

But Lao Deputy Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith assured British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell during a meeting in London that a pregnant woman would not receive the death sentence, Mr Rammell said.