CAIRO: An Egyptian court sentenced a British woman to three
years in prison on Tuesday for smuggling around 300 painkiller tablets
into the country, in a ruling her defence team said she would appeal to
have overturned or commuted.
Laura Plummer, a 33-year-old
shop worker from Hull, was arrested in October after the Tramadol
tablets were found in her suitcase. Her family told British newspapers
she bought the tablets for her Egyptian partner living in Hurghada.
Plummer
attended a hearing in her case on Monday. The court also ruled that she
must pay a fine of 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,600). Tramadol is a
legal, prescription medicine in Britain, but it is banned in Egypt.
“From
day one, this has been a complete nightmare. Yesterday in the court she
wasn’t even allowed her own interpreter. She had to get the court’s
interpreter who was interpreting the wrong answers,” her sister Jayne
Synclair said, speaking on BBC television.
