A U.K. Woman Tried to Bring Painkillers Into Egypt. She Was Sentenced to 3 Years

Jamie Ducharme
Updated
She said she didn't know they were illegal

A U.K. woman arrested in October for bringing potent painkillers into Egypt has been convicted and sentenced to three years in jail.

Laura Plummer, 33, was arrested after authorities found her bringing 300 tablets of Tramadol, a powerful class C painkiller, into Egypt, the BBC reports. Tramadol is legal in the U.K. with a prescription, but illegal in Egypt.

Plummer said she did not know the drug was illegal in Egypt and was bringing the pills into the country for her partner, who suffers from back pain after an accident, according to the BBC. She made no effort to hide the tablets, which the BBC reports she obtained from a friend. (As a class C drug, the only legal way to obtain Tramadol, even in countries where it is permitted, is with a prescription — not from friends or family.)

Jayne Synclair, one of Plummer’s sisters, added that Plummer’s partner, Omar Caboo, did not know she was bringing the pills for him. “He did not even know she was bringing them,” Synclair told the BBC. “She was doing it to be kind. How can you be sentenced to three years just for being kind?”