Laura Plummer (pictured) had her pardon from Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi withdrawn
The family of jailed Briton Laura Plummer are facing new agony after Egypt’s ruler withdrew her pardon.
Ms Plummer, 33, locked up for carrying banned painkillers, was told she would be freed after her name appeared on a presidential pardon list.
But the British Embassy in Cairo yesterday informed her mother Roberta, 63, there had been a ‘mistake’.
She told The Sun: ‘How can they do this to her? It’s so cruel. We’ve been double-crossed.’
Ms Plummer, who has not heard the bad news, will have to wait six months for a new appeal to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Her family visited Al-Qanatir prison, on the outskirts of capital Cairo, for the second day running yesterday.
Ms Plummer previously told The Sun that her experience was like that of Bridget Jones in The Edge of Reason, during which Bridget ends up in a Thai prison after cocaine was found in her luggage.
The Foreign Office said: ‘Our embassy remains in regular contact with the Egyptian authorities.’
Ms Plummer has spent three months in at least three cells across the country after landing at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, about 450km south east of Cairo, with 290 Tramadol pills in her luggage.
The potent painkiller is illegal in Egypt and she was sentenced to three years in jail on Boxing Day, triggering a desperate legal battle from her family.
Miss Plummer’s family (pictured, including mother Roberta on the left) had visited her in prison
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 Plummer was visiting her Egyptian boyfriend Omar Saad on holiday and told police she had brought the pills, which are legal in the UK on prescription but banned in Egypt, for Mr Saad because he suffers from a bad back after a car crash.
She initially faced the death penalty after prosecutors did not believe Mr Saad existed and thought she was a drug smuggler.
But evidence submitted supported her story and she was sentenced for possession of an illegal drug.
El-Sisi, who uses the ‘act of mercy’ power three or four times a year on national holidays or major dates in the Egyptian calendar, pardons hundreds of prisoners a year but rarely foreigners.
Ms Plummer and Mr Saad met around four years previously when she was on holiday at the Hilton Sharks Bay resort in Sharm El Sheikh, where Mr Saad was a lifeguard.
He has another wife and children in his home town of Beni Suef but has always insisted he sees Miss Plummer as his wife.
Al-Qanatir prison, on the outskirts of Cairo in Egypt, where Miss Plummer has been held
Last year he told the Mail he felt responsible for her plight, saying: ‘My heart is absolutely broken – I’m missing her so much.
‘I did not want her to violate her life and I had no idea she would bring tramadol – I would have told her ‘don’t bring it to Egypt’.’ ‘don’t bring it to Egypt’.’
Tramadol is described as ‘a narcotic-like pain reliever’ and shares similar side effects to more harmful drugs including Class A heroin.
When used over a long period of time it can be highly addictive causing mental and physical dependence.