Letter: A punishment out of all proportion

Sir: It is now three years since Karyn Smith and Patricia Cahill, both from the Birmingham area, were arrested and jailed for alleged drug offences in Thailand. They were 18 and 17 at the time. These two young women have now spent three years in prison abroad, thousands of miles from their families, after being convicted of being in possession of a literally impossible quantity of heroin.

I have been associated with this case through the family of Karyn Smith. A year ago I wrote to the Thai authorities, asking for mercy and expressing the conviction that the girls' punishment was out of all proportion to what they could possibly have done. In point of fact, the scientific evidence is clear that, whatever there might or might not have been in their baggage, vast quantities of heroin were planted on them by drug enforcement officials.

Although Karyn Smith has been recognised by the European Parliament as a Human Rights victim, the British government seems to have taken an extraordinarily complacent line over the whole affair. It is high time, on grounds of both compassion and justice, for our government to press actively for the speedy release of these two girls.

Yours faithfully

MARK BIRMINGHAM

(Bishop of Birmingham)

Harborne, Birmingham