World
British Tourist Sent To Notorious Prison With ISIS Jihadis After She Was Jailed For Having Painkillers
Published
7 years agoon
![](https://populistwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/laura-plummer.jpg)
(Via Daily Mail)
Egypt has reportedly defied the British Foreign Office by sending tourist Laura Plummer to the notorious Qena prison after she was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment yesterday.
Laura, 33, fell to the floor after being handed the jail term by an Egyptian court over powerful painkillers found in her suitcase.
Stunned, the woman from Hull sobbed before slumping to the floor.
‘I thought I’d be freed – I thought it was the end,’ she sobbed.
Laura escaped the death penalty for transporting the opiate Tramadol in her luggage at the start of a holiday. However, she was told she would still be locked up.
Today her sister Jayne Synclair revealed the Foreign Office intervened to block Laura being sent to the ‘dangerous’ Qena prison.
But after turning up to visit her daughter at a jail in Cairo her mum Roberta Synclair, 64, discovered Laura had been moved 150 miles to the notorious hell-hole.
Jayne, 40, said: ‘It’s really underhand – my mum went to Cairo to where they were told she would be but when she turned up she wasn’t there.
‘They have slyly taken her to where the British Foreign Office told us she would never be placed – but the Egyptian authorities have already moved her there.
‘Our biggest fear with this scenario has been confirmed – she will be sharing a tiny cell with jihadi terrorists and rapists.
‘I honestly dread to think. Laura won’t survive a day in there – let alone three years.
‘She won’t even make it through that – I can’t believe they’ve even still sent her there.’
The jail is situated north of Luxor and Jayne is fearful her sister won’t make it out alive.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: ‘We are continuing to provide assistance to Laura and her family following the court ruling in Egypt, and our embassy is in regular contact with the Egyptian authorities.’
Describing the conditions in the Qena prison, Jayne said: ‘I’ve seen pictures and if you kept a dog in there and the RSPCA saw it – you would lose your dog. It’s honestly THAT bad.’
She said the family will be expected to pay for Laura’s food and will only be able to visit a maximum of once every two weeks.
Jayne said the family’s Christmas – and year – has been ruined following the sentencing of Laura.
She said Laura is covered in mosquito bites, had a scabby face and her hair is falling out.
Jayne said: ‘Laura has got three years, but we have got a life sentence with this – our family will never be able to shake this off.
‘We come from a privileged background so we did not need the money, her ticket was £500, she had £1,500 and she had £3,500 in her bank.
‘There was nothing on the travel guide website when visiting Egypt that says you cannot take Tramadol into the country.
‘The evidence was so overwhelming in her favour and yet she still got three years.
‘Her solicitor told us that he was expecting to be freed and allowed to leave – but we think she was made an example of.’
Jayne confirmed Laura’s shop assistant job in Princes Quay in Hull has been kept vacant until she returned from her Egypt hell hole.
She added: ‘Laura isn’t the strongest of people, she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown, covered in scabs.
‘She’s been bitten from head to foot in mosquito bites and she’s like a ghost.
‘Her skin is translucent and the muscles in her legs don’t work – they’re like jelly.
‘That’s why she had to be seated during the court hearing.’
Ms Plummer said, after her sentence: ‘Everyone was saying how strong my case was and that it was only a matter of time. How can this be happening? I can’t do three years here, I’m so frightened, I haven’t done anything wrong.’
Shop worker Laura, from Hull, was arrested after she was found to be carrying 290 Tramadol tablets in her suitcase, a painkiller which is legal in the UK but banned in Egypt.
Ms Plummer’s family, who have described her as ‘naive’, said she was taking the tablets for her Egyptian partner Omar Caboo, who suffers from severe back pain.
But now a judge at a preliminary court has sentenced her to three years’ imprisonment and ordered her to pay a fine of 100,000 Egyptian pounds (£4,205).
Ms Plummer’s sister Jayne Synclair told Sky News today that her sister – who she described as an ‘absolute mess’ – will have to wait 60 days before she can appeal.
She said: ‘What’s going to happen in those 60 days? What’s going to happen to her? She thought she was going to come home. It’s a living hell.’
Ms Synclair said the Egyptian justice system has ‘sentenced her whole family’ as they are all ‘in a state’ worrying if Ms Plummer will ever get out.
Last night, Ms Plummer was moved to a police holding cell next to the court in port town Safaga.
Later, Ms Plummer was told she would be transferred to Qena, 150 miles away, in just a few days, The Sun reports.
Yesterday, her lawyer said Ms Plummer had ‘accidentally’ confessed in front of a judge after reportedly misunderstanding a question.
Ms Plummer’s family previously claimed she was suicidal after sharing a 15ft square cell with 25 women inmates.
It has also been claimed that staff at the jail – which is on the outskirts of the city of Hurgharda – have shown little sympathy for what the Egyptian media are calling the ‘Tramadol Tourist’.
Mr Caboo was described by witnesses at the court as being ‘very sad’ after the sentence was delivered, while Laura cried so heavily that her mother had to calm her down.
Speaking after the sentence, her visibly distraught mother, Roberta Synclair, said: ‘This is not fair. She’s done it in all innocence.
‘She brought [the drugs] to help someone, to help a family.’
She added: ‘She’s the kindest person… I was worried about her before, [when she was] in the police station. I’m even more worried now she’s in actual prison with real criminals.
‘I feel sick – I’m so frightened for her.’
She has now been transferred to a police station, from which she will be sent to jail.
The sentence, however, can be changed as the case progresses through the Egyptian legal system.
It is expected to take a minimum of one month for the second stage of the case to begin.
The family said her lawyers lodged an immediate appeal.
Ms Plummer’s sister, Rachel, said their mother Roberta was ‘devastated’ by the sentence.
She said the family was trying to find out more details about what happened in the courtroom today.
She said: ‘My mum’s obviously devastated. She’s out there by herself.’ She added that she did not know whether the appeal would be heard today.
She said: ‘We’re just hoping. Even half of that would be better. Anything less than three years. She doesn’t deserve that.’
Ms Plummer’s MP Karl Turner said the ruling had come as a devastating blow to her family but he was hopeful that good sense would eventually prevail.
He said her case had been raised with the Egyptian authorities by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and the Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt.
‘I am hopeful that good sense will eventually prevail,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One.
‘This is a damning indictment actually of the Egyptian authorities in the sense that good sense and fairness certainly hasn’t prevailed in this case.
‘This is a decent woman who has made a terrible mistake who shouldn’t be incarcerated in any prison, never mind an Egyptian prison.’
Neville Plummer, Laura’s father, said his daughter is ‘on the verge of a breakdown’ after the sentencing.
‘The family are all absolutely devastated for Laura. It has been very distressing for everyone involved, but we have got to stay strong for Laura,’ he said.
‘The last time I spoke to Laura was two days after she was arrested.. To be honest, I think she was sentenced on the day she was arrested.
‘This has been drawn out and dragged on and on, and in a way a line has now been drawn in the sand and things can only get better.’
‘We have now got to stay positive for Laura,’ Mr Plummer said.
‘I will leave no stone unturned, and will let no money stand in the way of getting her the justice she needs.
‘She pleaded guilty to the trafficking when she did not even mean to plead guilty that is not justice, that is an injustice.
‘I will never give up with the help. It is a very sad day for the family, at what should be a happy time of the year.’
Mr Plummer praised the work of the lawyers and legal teams who had represented Laura during the hearing.
He also said Hull East MP Karl Turner had been very supportive of Laura, and was continuing in his work to help the Hull woman.
Mr Turner said: ‘I am hopeful that good sense will eventually prevail.
‘This is a damning indictment actually of the Egyptian authorities in the sense that good sense and fairness certainly hasn’t prevailed in this case.
‘This is a decent woman who has made a terrible mistake who shouldn’t be incarcerated in any prison, never mind an Egyptian prison.’
Yesterday her lawyer said she had ‘accidentally’ pleaded guilty during a hearing.
Her mother Roberta Synclair travelled to Egypt for the Christmas Day hearing.
Her lawyer Dia al-Bassal said Ms Plummer was asked yesterday: ‘You are accused of smuggling and possessing Tramadol to Egypt?’
She then replied ‘yes’, with the judge ensuring the clerk recorded she had ‘confessed’ to the crime.
But when her translator explained what the question was, she denied being guilty of the charge.
Mr Bassal told The Telegraph: ‘She meant that she is admitting that she had the Tramadol, but not admitting of being guilty.
‘The judge jumped to the conclusion that she confesses before clarifying that she understood the question and this is worrying.’
Ms Plummer then reportedly wept in frustration, stressing ‘it’s not fair’.
Her lawyer will submit an explanation today emphasising that she meant to say she had the drug with her but did not intend to sell it.
Her sister Rachel Plummer said the judge adjourned the case for a day because of Laura’s condition.
She said: ‘She’s sleep deprived, she’s visibly nervous and upset.
‘She’s answered some questions wrong because she’s not understanding them, she obviously can’t think straight.
‘You can imagine the pressure – this is her life.’
She said their mother and Mr Caboo were denied access to the hearing as their driver took them to court late.
MP Karl Turner told Sky News yesterday’s hearing was adjourned so that Ms Plummer could find another interpreter.
He said: ‘Apparently something was lost in translation, the defence lawyer wasn’t confident that Laura was understanding the questions first of all, and the interpreter wasn’t correctly translating what Laura was saying in her answers.’
Mr Turner said: ‘The evidence is pretty clear that she didn’t know the drug was banned and she was taking it out there to help her boyfriend, who has come up with the evidence that he does suffer from a severe back problem.’
The Plummer family has previously said she had no idea that what she doing was illegal and was just ‘daft’.
They said she did not try to hide the medicine, which she had been given by a friend, and she thought it was a joke when she was pulled over by officials after arriving for a holiday with her partner.
Mrs Synclair said her daughter was being held in terrible conditions in a communal cell with no beds, sharing with up to 25 other women.
She said she looked ‘unrecognisable’.
Ms Plummer is being held in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, where she was arrested at the airport on October 9.
Her family has been told that she could face up to 25 years in jail, with one lawyer even mentioning the death penalty.
Yesterday her lawyer claimed the price of her plane ticket could set her free.
Mohamed Othman said that a plane ticket shows she did not intend to sell the 290 Tramadol tablets found in her suitcase because she paid twice as much for her flight as the drugs are worth.
Othman called the plane ticket a ‘key piece of evidence’.
He told The Sun: ‘For someone to be found guilty of drug smuggling they have to be aware that they are possessing narcotics. Laura did not know that what she was carrying was a narcotic.
‘It is illogical that she was dealing in Tramadol.She had only 320 pills – even the plane ticket is almost double the price of those pills.’
Plummer wept in court as she appeared in front of a judge on Christmas Day.
Christmas Day is a normal working day in the Islamic country, and the shop assistant from Hull appeared in the dock handcuffed.
Miss Plummer’s mother Roberta Synclair and Mr Caboo arrived late to the courtroom and stood outside.
Mr Caboo, speaking outside of court, was convinced Miss Plummer would be freed.
He told MailOnline: ‘I am sure Laura is innocent. She did not bring the Tramadol for selling or trading.
‘I am sure she will be freed. She did not intend to do smuggle or trade.’
When Miss Plummer was arrested on October 9, she signed a 38-page document written in Arabic as she thought it would grant her freedom.
It led to her being locked up and she has already spent ten weeks in prison sharing a 15ft square cell with 25 women inmates.
Last month, her mother Roberta Synclair said: ‘She did not realise what she was doing’.
She said Ms Plummer made no attempt to hide the medicine, which she had been given by a friend, and she thought it was a joke when she was first pulled over by officials when she flew into the country for a holiday with Mr Caboo.
![](https://populistwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/de8d6e7b-c6d2-49cd-bfb0-638e4023da53.jpeg)
In an unprecedented move, Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered the nationwide suspension of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing feud between the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, and Brazilian authorities. This decision stems from Musk’s refusal to comply with court orders to appoint a legal representative in Brazil and to suspend certain accounts accused of spreading misinformation and hate speech.
The tension reached a boiling point when Justice Alexandre de Moraes gave X a 24-hour ultimatum to name a representative or face a complete operational shutdown in Brazil. Musk’s response was to close X’s office in Brazil, citing threats of arrest against his staff for non-compliance with what he described as “secret censoring orders.” This move has left millions of Brazilian users in the dark, with the platform going offline across the nation.
The implications of this standoff are manifold. Firstly, it pits the concept of free speech, as championed by Musk, against Brazil’s judicial efforts to curb what it sees as the spread of dangerous misinformation. Critics argue that this is a test case for how far nations can go in regulating global digital platforms. Secondly, the economic impact on X cannot be understated, with Brazil being one of its significant markets.
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Media
Assange’s Freedom: A Blow to the Neo-Con and Neo-Liberal Elite
Published
2 months agoon
June 25, 2024![](https://populistwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Assange.jpg)
In a surprising turn of events, Julian Assange, the controversial founder of WikiLeaks, has been freed from prison, sending shockwaves through the political establishment. For years, Assange has been a thorn in the side of the global elite, exposing their secrets and lies to the world. Now, as he walks free, many on the right-wing populist side of the aisle are celebrating, while others, particularly those with skeletons in their closets, are trembling in fear.
The release of Julian Assange is a victory for truth and transparency. For too long, the powers that be have operated in the shadows, manipulating the masses and advancing their own agendas. Assange and WikiLeaks have been instrumental in shining a light on the dark underbelly of global politics, revealing the corruption and deceit that permeates our institutions.
However, not everyone is happy about Assange’s newfound freedom. Neo-cons and neo-liberals, who have long been in cahoots with the global elite, are terrified that their treasonous activities will be exposed. They fear that Assange’s release will lead to a flood of information that will expose their lies and destroy their carefully constructed narratives.
Take, for example, Mike Pence, the former Vice President of the United States. Pence, a known neo-conservative, has been a vocal opponent of Assange and WikiLeaks. Why? Because he knows that his own treasonous actions could be exposed. Pence has been accused of colluding with foreign powers and selling out the American people for his own gain. The release of Assange could be the final nail in the coffin for Pence and his ilk.
The truth is, the opposition to Assange’s release is not about national security or protecting classified information. It’s about protecting the interests of the global elite and their puppets in government. The neo-cons and neo-liberals are terrified of losing their grip on power, and they will do anything to silence those who threaten their reign.
But the people are waking up. They are tired of being lied to and manipulated. They are hungry for the truth, and they will not be silenced. The release of Julian Assange is a step in the right direction, but it is only the beginning. The fight for truth and transparency is far from over.
As a right-wing populist, I believe that the people have a right to know the truth about their leaders and the institutions that govern them. I believe that the global elite and their puppets in government should be held accountable for their actions. I believe that Julian Assange is a hero, and his release is a victory for the people.
So, to Mike Pence and all the other neo-cons and neo-liberals who oppose Assange’s release, I say this: The truth will come out, and you will be exposed for the traitors that you are. The people will not be silenced, and they will not be fooled. The fight for truth and transparency is just beginning, and we will not rest until justice is served.
Politics
Populist Politicians Must Separate From Zionism To Truly Win
Published
3 months agoon
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In a stunning turn of events, populist parties across Europe have made significant gains in the recent elections. From Italy to France, Germany to the Netherlands, these political outsiders have captured the hearts and minds of millions of disillusioned voters.
In Italy, the right-wing populist Brothers of Italy party secured the highest vote share of any single party in the nation’s recent election, making its leader, Giorgia Meloni, the likely prime minister. Meloni’s party has been riding a wave of anti-establishment sentiment, promising to put “Italians first” and curb immigration.
In France, the National Rally party, led by Marine Le Pen, made significant gains in the European Parliament elections. Le Pen’s party has been a thorn in the side of the French establishment for years, advocating for stricter immigration controls and a more nationalist agenda.
In Germany, the right-leaning Alternative for Germany (AfD) saw a surge in support, coming in second place in the European Parliament elections. The AfD has been gaining traction with its anti-immigration stance and skepticism towards the European Union.
In the Netherlands, the populist Forum for Democracy party made significant gains in the European Parliament elections, coming in second place. The party has been tapping into Dutch voters’ concerns about immigration and the influence of the European Union.
The rise of populist parties across Europe is a clear sign that many voters are fed up with the traditional political establishment. These parties have been able to tap into a deep well of discontent, promising to shake up the status quo and put the interests of ordinary citizens first.
However, the true success of these populist movements will come when they disassociate Europe from zionism and focus on the European people, their cultures, and their interests. Populism isn’t about being anti-anyone. It’s about being pro-European. It’s about standing up for our people, our culture, and our interests. And as long as populist movements stay true to that mission, they will continue to thrive.
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