Phonthong Prison(??????????), known as the 'Foreigners Prison', is a mixed sex prison near Vientiane. The prison is used to hold non-Laotian prisoners.
Video Phonthong Prison
Conditions
Prison conditions are poor. Prison cells measuring about sixteen square metres are used to hold up to six inmates. Rations consist of two bowls of pig fat water soup and sticky rice per cell per day.
According to former prisoner Kay Danes, prisoners are regularly tortured using techniques including mock executions, beatings and waterboarding, and some prisoners have had their genitals burned.
Maps Phonthong Prison
History
The prison has been used to hold foreigners, and has become notorious in two high-profile cases. Kerry and Kay Danes, an Australian couple, were held there after being arrested in 2000, but were pardoned in 2001. In August 2008, British woman Samantha Orobator was arrested in Laos after she was discovered with 680 grams of heroin. She was detained at the prison, and became pregnant while in custody. In June 2009, she was sentenced to life imprisonment after a three-hour trial. Laotian law prescribed the death penalty for drug smuggling, but Orobator avoided this sentence due to her pregnancy. She was repatriated to the UK in August 2009 to serve her sentence there.
See also
- Kerry and Kay Danes
- Punishment in Laos
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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