Laura Plummer, 33, was jailed for three years on Boxing Day after being found to have illegally brought 290 Tramadol painkiller tablets in her suitcase into the country
The British woman jailed in Egypt for bringing illegal painkillers into the country for her boyfriend could be freed by a presidential pardon today.
Laura Plummer, 33, was jailed for three years on Boxing Day after being found to have brought 290 Tramadol painkiller tablets in her suitcase into the African country.
Today is Revolution Day in Egypt – a national public holiday – when the country’s president can issue pardons to prisoners.
Ms Plummer’s family, who have described her as ‘naive’, said she was taking the tablets for her Egyptian partner Omar, who suffers from severe back pain.
Laura, a shop worker from Hull, East Yorkshire, is being held in horrendous conditions in a prison cell.
Her sister Jayne Synclair is praying Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will use his authority to release Laura on the ‘day of mercy’.
President Sisi does not have the authority to interfere in Egypt’s judicial processes, but can issue pardons.
He has used this power on previous bank holidays to release a raft of prisoners.
Ms Synclair, speaking today, said: ‘We have a small hope.
Ms Plummer’s family, who have described Laura (right) as ‘naive’, said she was taking the tablets for her Egyptian partner Omar (left), who suffers from severe back pain
Ms Sinclair said the family have had no contact with Laura but have had an update from Omar which gave them small comfort. Pictured: Laura (right) with her two sisters
Laura’s family (pictured, including mother Roberta on the left) have repeatedly begged for clemency
‘We are not building our hopes up but we put it through the press for him to consider.
‘He has previously said he won’t interfere in Laura’s case but we would love her to get pardoned.’
President Sisi pardoned 203 prisoners in March 2017 and over 500 in June in a presidential decree.
Ms Sinclair said the family have had no contact with Laura since she began her sentence but have had an update from Omar, which gave them small comfort.
President Sisi pardoned 203 prisoners in March 2017 and over 500 in June in a presidential decree. Pictured: Laura before her ordeal
Pictured: Laura (left), her sisters and mother (right) enjoy a glass of wine in happier times
She added: ‘We have no contact at all with Laura and she isn’t allowed to use the phone or anything like that.
‘The family has never been able to have a phone call.
Laura (pictured with boyfriend Omar) was reduced to tears during one visit after she was moved to a notorious prison in the country’s capital, Cairo
‘She is not in a cell with 64 people any more, like she was.
‘I think it was a holding cell which she has now been moved out of.
‘When we visited Egypt we put an official complaint in about the conditions of the cell.
‘With the state Laura was in, we thought she should be sectioned under the mental health act when we were there.
‘There was no space at all in the cell, people were shouting it was so loud.
‘If you have seen the pictures of the jail it isn’t a positive thing for us, but she has been moved into a cell with another British woman who she said she is getting on with.’
Laura was reduced to tears during one visit after she was moved to a notorious prison in the country’s capital, Cairo.
The clothes assistant begged her sister Jayne Synclair, 40, to ‘not leave her here’ and said she was living her ‘worst nightmare’.
Ms Synclair visited her with their other sister Rachel Plummer, 31, at the notorious Al Qanater prison.
It emerged earlier this month that Ms Plummer had been transferred to the notorious jail in Cairo (pictured) to start her three-year-prison sentence
The prison was in a bad state of disrepair and the cells only have a small window giving contact with the outside world
According to The Sun, Laura said: ‘I’ll never make it out of here alive. I’m just not strong enough.
‘This is my worst nightmare. It’s a living hell and I want to die. I just can’t bear it anymore.’
Ms Synclair previously revealed the Foreign Office intervened to block Laura being sent to the ‘dangerous’ Qena prison – but was ignored.