Egypt jail hell Brit Laura Plummer was CLEARED of drug smuggling, court documents show… but she still faces three years in jail
EGYPT jail hell Brit Laura Plummer was CLEARED of drug smuggling by judges, new court documents show.
The papers - obtained by Sun Online - were filed after Laura, 33, was caged for three years on Boxing Day for carrying painkillers in her suitcase.
They confirm prosecutors found no evidence to prove she planned to peddle the Tramadol pills during her two week holiday.
But Laura was still prosecuted under Egyptian law for possessing the tablets - despite her claims she had no idea they were illegal.
The documents, which have been translated from Arabic, read: “The court did not find any evidence which proves her intention to deal/sell the seized drugs, as she was not caught red-handed dealing, and also because the police did not find during her arrest any tools used for this act.
“The secret investigation also could not detect any links of the accused with alleged clients in Egypt, to whom she might be selling drugs, especially that she visits the country quite often.
“The investigations also revealed that although she has visited Egypt many times, she has never been arrested on any previous occasion, for possessing drugs or for having any kind of illegal substances.
“The investigations also found that the accused never had any suspected links or relations with any drug dealers or drug addicts in Egypt.
“The investigations proved also that the accused did not have any intention to use the possessed drugs herself.”
Shop worker Laura was seized by cops in October last year when she flew into the Red Sea resort of Hurghada to see her Egyptian husband, Omar Saad, 33.
She told them she brought the pills for Omar who suffers with a bad back after a car crash two years ago.
X-rays submitted to the court in Safaga proved she was telling the truth.
But despite her pleas she was sentenced to three years for possession during the court hearing on Boxing Day.
She has since been moved to Al Qanater prison in Cairo but has submitted an appeal against her conviction in the hope of being released.
Her appeal has been lodged on the grounds that there was no practical way of her knowing that tramadol was banned in Egypt.
The Foreign Office’s travel advisory was not updated until AFTER her arrest and the tour operator with whom she booked the holiday offered no guidance on its website.
Nor were there any signs up at the airport - which she would have seen on previous trips had they been up - warning about bringing tramadol into the country.
Speaking to The Sun in January Laura told how she watched Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason just before her fateful flight to Egypt - with chilling echoes of what was in store for her.
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Bridget, played by Renee Zellweger, is sent to a Thai prison in the 2004 film after a stash of cocaine is found in her luggage.
Laura said: "I didn't like the bit when Bridget gets arrested because it was so unbelievable. But hours later I was in exactly the same situation. I couldn't believe it.
"I kept thinking about the film and was telling myself, 'Remember Bridget Jones'.
"I remembered how she got on so well with the other inmates that she taught them to sing Madonna's Like a Virgin. But it was nothing like that for me. It's my worst nightmare."
Her family are now pinning their hopes on the appeal.
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