Laura Plummer: British woman imprisoned in Egypt on drug trafficking charges released after 14 months

Laura Plummer was jailed in 2017 for importing 290 doses of tramadol

Laura Plummer, a 34-year-old shop worker from Hull, has been released from prison in Egypt after serving just over a year for a drugs conviction.

In October 2017 she flew into Hurghada, a beach resort along Egypt’s Res Sea coast, with 290 tramadol painkillers in her luggage. She said she was taking them in for her partner, who suffers from chronic pain following a car accident.

The trial took place on Christmas Day 2017. Ms Plummer said a guilty plea was recorded due to a mistake in translation. She was sentenced to three years in jail.

After the judgment, her MP criticised the Egyptian authorities. Karl Turner, Labour member for Hull East, called the sentence “a damning indictment” of the country’s government.

Ms Plummer has been freed by presidential pardon and is in a police station awaiting deportation on a scheduled flight to the UK, The Sun reports.

Ms Plummer told the newspaper: “I wanted to help Omar and do a kind thing and I ended up in prison.

“I just wish I wasn’t being deported. But I promise you – I’ll never set foot in an airport again.”

Egypt has a serious problem with opiate abuse. Heroin addicts sometimes use tramadol, a very strong painkiller, as a substitute for their drug of choice.

The NHS says tramadol is prescribed “to treat moderate to severe pain, for example after an operation or a serious injury” and it can be addictive.

Unlike some less-powerful analgesics, tramadol is available only on prescription. Because it is used by some people recreationally, the Department of Health limits prescriptions to 30 days’ treatment.

“If the prescription is issued for a longer period, the prescriber must justify that there is a clinical need,” doctors are told.

Ms Plummer had not been prescribed the drugs, and said a colleague had given them to her, although it is unclear how her supplier came by such a surplus.

The Foreign Office warns British visitors to Egypt: “If you’re travelling with prescription medication you should carry a medical certificate confirming that the medication has been prescribed for a medical condition.”