British woman jailed in Egypt for carrying painkillers in her luggage pardoned

Laura Plummer, from Hull, was jailed in Egypt for three years Credit: Family handout/PA

A British woman jailed in Egypt after painkillers were discovered in her luggage has been pardoned, declaring her holiday turned into a nightmare.

Laura Plummer, 34, from Hull, was sentenced to three years in prison on Boxing Day 2017 for taking 290 Tramadol tablets into the country.

The shop worker has been pardoned and freed from jail.

Ms Plummer told The Sun: “My two-week holiday in the sun turned into a nightmare.”

She added: “I’m so happy to be going home. I mean, who goes on holiday for two weeks and then stays 14 months?

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

Ms Plummer was arrested at the airport on October 9, 2017 when she flew into the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

Her lawyer said she is one of 6,925 prisoners granted early release by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on 25 January, having served a third of her sentence.

The authorities transferred Ms Plummer to police custody in the Egyptian resort town of Hurgada, as she awaits deportation. She is expected to travel back to the UK with her mother and sister.

She claimed she was taking the tablets – which are legal in the UK but banned in Egypt – into the country for her Egyptian partner Omar Caboo, who suffers from severe back pain, and had no idea what she was doing was wrong.

The Plummer family has previously said Ms Plummer 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.

Roberta Sinclair said her daughter was being held in terrible conditions in a communal cell with no beds, sharing with up to 25 other women.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “Our staff continue to do all they can to support Laura and her family, and our Embassy remains in regular contact with the Egyptian authorities.”