The future of a British woman jailed in Egypt for smuggling nearly 300 banned painkiller pills into the country has been mired in confusion after reports of an imminent pardon were swiftly denied.

Laura Plummer, from Hull, was sentenced to three years in prison in December after she was convicted of possessing controlled drugs, found on her as she entered the country.

The 33-year-old was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking at Hurghada airport when customs officers found 290 tramadol tablets in her luggage, which she says were for her Egyptian husband who has chronic back pain.

Last week the Sun reported that Plummer was to be released within hours after the country’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, pardoned her during a “day of mercy”. But it is now reporting that the British embassy in Cairo has told Plummer’s family that was incorrect.

Plummer’s lawyer Mohamed Osman had previously told journalists, including the Guardian, as well as her MP, Karl Turner, on 25 January that he was “95% certain” that her name would be included on a list of prisoners to be freed, but that this information would not be published by Egyptian officials until at least 27 January.

Osman did not name the source of the information but stressed that it would remain unconfirmed until the list was published, and was thus potentially untrue. He did not respond to further requests for comment when contacted on Tuesday.

The Egyptian president issued a pardon for 477 prisoners to coincide with Egypt’s national police day holiday and the anniversary of the January 2011 revolution, but Plummer’s name was not on the list.

Reports that Plummer was to receive a pardon and would be freed within days were followed by further reporting in the UK press alleging that British embassy officials in Cairo had apologised to her family for the “mistake”, and that the pardon “had been withdrawn”. Yet both Turner and Foreign Office staff deny those claims..

A spokeswoman for the British embassy in Cairo said: “At no point did Foreign Office staff, including the British embassy staff in Cairo, advise Laura’s family that she would be released imminently.”

A spokesman for the Foreign Office reiterated that its staff did not tell Plummer’s family she would be released, adding: “We continue to recommend they obtain updates on Laura’s legal situation from her lawyer.”

Turner, who represents East Hull, said the accusations against Foreign Office and Egyptian officials were unfounded.

“I have had almost daily contact with the minister of state, Alistair Burt, since Laura was arrested in October last year. At no point has he confirmed to me that the Foreign Office has been notified of any presidential pardon being granted or Laura’s imminent release,” the Labour MP said.

“I also have regular contact with Foreign Office officials here in the UK and the consular team in Cairo. At no point have they confirmed that they had been notified by the Egyptian authorities that Laura would be released.”

He added: “It would be highly unusual for the Egyptian government officials not to notify Foreign Office officials in the UK if they had intended to release a British citizen from detention in Egypt.

“[The] paramount concern is for Laura, who is bound to be devastated on hearing that she is not to be released after the speculation in the British media that she might be.”

Plummer has been held in Al Qanater women’s prison since receiving a three-year sentence for drug possession on 26 December. She received the minimum possible sentence after facing charges of up to 25 years or even the death penalty for drug trafficking.

She was stopped at Hurghada airport in October after a scan of her bags revealed she was carrying almost 300 tablets of the opioid painkiller, a common parallel-market substitute for heroin in Egypt. According to her family she was then forced to sign a 38-page confession document in Arabic, a language she neither reads nor understands.



Plummer’s family has said her partner, Omar Caboo, previously presented medical records they said proved he had long-term back problems which required pain medication.

They have defended Caboo against accusations that he put pressure on Plummer to supply the drugs, arguing that he waited for her outside the airport for five hours when she was initially detained and that their four-year relationship was genuine.

The couple obtained a marriage certificate in order to be able to stay together when Plummer visited Egypt, a country where an unmarried foreigner cannot stay in the same hotel room as an Egyptian citizen of the opposite sex.

Egyptian authorities have staged a crackdown in recent years to prevent widespread misuse of tramadol.