The pregnant British woman jailed for heroin trafficking in Laos today arrived back in Britain to serve out the rest of her sentence.

Samantha Orobator, 20, appeared in high spirits as she was met by a prison van at Heathrow and transferred to Holloway Prison where is due to give birth in one month’s time.

In a written statement, she said she was “enormously relieved and happy to be back on British soil,” describing her ordeal as “an unimaginable nightmare”.

"I would like to thank all those who were involved in my return, including various British Government officials, for their efforts on my behalf, and for their support,” she said.

“Meanwhile, I would be grateful for a little peace as this has been a very traumatic experience both for me and for my unborn child.”

Laotian police say they found 1.5 pounds of heroin in 68 capsules on Orobator’s body when she was arrested last year as she boarded a flight for Australia.

Orobator was spared the death penalty as she had become pregnant while inside the all-female wing of her jail by the time she was sentenced. Laotian law does not allow the execution of pregnant women but the circumstances of her conception remain unclear.

Orobator will appear within days at the High Court where judges will set a minimum tariff on the life sentence handed down by the Laotian court.

Her lawyers, however, are demanding her immediate release, saying it would be “truly shocking” for Britain to enforce the “insane judgement” of the Laotian court.

“To call the Lao legal proceedings a kangaroo court would be an offence to the kangaroo family,” Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal charity Reprieve, said.

“Samantha has only got one life and the British Government simply can’t say that they have chosen to forfeit that one life to spend the rest of her time in prison just because of some bizarre conviction in Laos."

Mr Stafford Smith said the opacity of the Laotian courts, which forced Orobator to sign a series of contradictory statements and denying her legal representation, made it impossible to know the full facts.

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