Laura Plummer is accused of illegally taking 300 tramadol tablets into country, which she says were for her partner who suffers from back pain

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The woman accused of smuggling hundreds of prescription painkillers into Egypt has been referred for trial at a criminal court and must remain in custody until her case is heard.

Laura Plummer, 33, stands accused of illegally taking 300 tramadol tablets into Eygpt where the prescription painkillers are a controlled substance.

She claimed she had “no idea” the opioids were banned in the country and insists she was bringing the painkillers to her partner who was suffering from back pain.

Plummer’s MP, Karl Turner, told the Press Association: “Omar, the partner of Laura, has come forward with evidence to show that he did indeed suffer with back pain – various medical certificates and scans which prove that it was true.”

Turner said the Egyptian lawyer acting for Plummer is confident that the evidence will help her case as it confirms her version of events.

Among the documents are x-rays, medical records and a marriage certificate. The couple reportedly met four years ago. “Hopefully now her nightmare will come to an end,” her husband Omar Caboo, 34, said. “These papers will prove she was telling the truth.”

Plummer’s lawyer is understood to have acted for British citizens in Egypt before.

Turner added: “Tramadol is a controlled class C drug in the UK, and is banned entirely in Egypt because it’s a recreation drug of choice … they are desperate to stamp it out.”

He said Plummer’s father put it well when he said his daughter “wouldn’t know a tramadol from a Panadol”, adding: “They weren’t concealed, they were laid on top of clothing. Clearly she’d not gone to any attempt to conceal them. She didn’t realise they were illegal.”

Her brother, James Plummer, had previously said her family had been told she could face up to 25 years in jail, with one lawyer even mentioning the death penalty.

“It’s just blown out of proportion completely,” he said. “She’s so by the book, so routine, she just likes her own home comforts, watches Emmerdale every night or things like that, going to bed at nine o’clock every night.”

He said his sister just thought she was doing a “good deed” by bringing the medication, which she had been given by a colleague in Hull whom she had told about her husband’s back pain.

Tramadol is the most abused drug in Egypt, according to a government minister. The synthetic opioid is only available on prescription but is often obtained illegally and used as a heroin substitute, as it is elsewhere in the world.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said its officials were “supporting a British woman and her family following her detention in Egypt”.