Blog:A Tale of Two Jailings
From Bolton Interweb
Ben Dover and Gwyn-Anne Bearitt, Crime Correspondents, 8th August 2009
On 7th August, Ronnie Biggs was finally released from his jail sentence on "compassionate" grounds. Aged 79 (80 today) and suffering from pneumonia that he is not expected to recover from, Biggs has also suffered heart attacks and strokes in the years since his return from exile in Brazil. Biggs' notoriety as a result of his escape from prison and subsequent high living on the run have seemingly turned him into some kind of folk hero. But Biggs is no Robin Hood; he is a nasty, vile, violent, unrepentant scumbag robber undeserving of anyone's compassion, let along respect or admiration. He came back to the UK to leech off the British taxpayer and get free medical treatment he had never contributed towards. The gang hit the train driver, Jack Mills, on the head with an iron bar leaving him unable to work and suffering trauma headaches for the rest of his life. So don't feel sorry for Biggs, and don't feel compassion. This is the man who, in the Pearly Gates Operational Guidance Manual, 4th Edition 1998, is used as the model example of a "burn in Hell" decision.
However, at 79 going on 80, and unlikely to leave hospital (for long), it is a patent waste of public money to put three prison guards on duty to watch him round the clock and to continue to house him in one of Her Majesty's Hotels. He can't harm anyone anymore. So Jack Straw made the right decision to release him, for the wrong reason. He should have been released on the grounds that we don't give a f**k and don't want to waste any more cash on him. I hope that if he recovers and wants to travel anywhere by train, someone warns the drivers of his travel plans so they can plan a reunion.
Also on the 7th August, Samantha Orobator returned to the UK to serve out a life sentence handed down in Laos for smuggling 1.5lb (680g) of Heroin through Wattay Airport in Vientiane, in August 2008. Orobator escaped the death penalty when she became pregnant whilst in jail. The father, apparently through artificial insemination, is John Watson, another Briton also imprisoned in Laos for drug smuggling. If you go smuggling drugs through South East Asian countries, everyone knows that if you get caught you will face the death penalty, so how stupid do you have to be to do it? If you get a life sentence then you are lucky. And if you get transferred back to the UK to serve it, you have hit the jackpot. Orobator has hit the jackpot.
Yet Clive Stafford Smith, director of the human rights charity Reprieve, said the Laos government had "consistently violated Samantha's legal rights, including coercing her into signing statements by withholding her right to a trial". She apparently had a trial - she pleaded guilty and it lasted a day - that's the way it works in Laos. He also said Reprieve would bring legal proceedings against the British Government next week if they did not reconsider her sentence, i.e. let her go. I repeat, Orobator pleaded guilty to the smuggling of heroin, and she managed to obtain sperm and get pregnant to dodge the firing squad. Apparently, depending on purity and the user, a lethal dose of heroin may range from 200 to 500mg, and Orobator had 680g of the stuff, i.e. enough to kill up to 3000 people. A life sentence seems a quite reasonable penalty when you look at it that way. Why did she do it? No-one knows yet but I guess we will find out in due course.
Anyway, she's back in the UK, and will be eligible for parole like any UK prisoner. The High Court will shortly determine the tariff to decide how soon parole will be possible. We can't have a re-trial in the UK as all the evidence and witnesses are in Laos and the offence was committed in Laos. That isn't good enough for Reprieve; they want the Government to renege on the deal with Laos and cancel her sentence or face legal action. Consider the effect of this - if the Government were to comply with the Reprieve demand, no other country (not just Laos) will ever trust us again when it comes to repatriation of prisoners and hundreds of Brits would rot in inhuman foreign jails forever as a result. John Watson, for whom the Governnment are still trying to get the Laotian Government to agree to a similar repatriation, will spend the rest of his days in a squalid Laos prison, and will be lucky to survive a couple of years. This is a truly stupid demand that the British Government hopefully have the sense to dismiss out of hand. Clive Stafford Smith is a twit, and proof that you don't need two twits to make a tw*t. Reprieve has some admirable aims but this time they risk shooting themselves in the foot. They've helped Orobator win the jackpot already but a convicted heroin smuggler is not a heroine, just another scumbag who puts the lives of thousands of others at risk - they are the victims not Orobator and perhaps Reprieve should think a little more about those real victims. It is no good whinging about foreign justice not being up to our standards (where most of the guilty get let off) and referring to kangaroo courts, insulting the Laotians - if you smuggle drugs in South East Asis, I repeat, you know what to expect if you get caught. And good for them. How about thanking the Laos Government for their humanitarian gesture?
© Evrose, 2010
