Briton gets 3-year jail term in Egypt for smuggling classified painkillers

CAIRO, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court sentenced on Tuesday a British woman to three years in jail for smuggling classified painkillers into the country, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

Laura Plummer, 33, was arrested in October upon her arrival at Hurghada airport of Egypt's Red Sea province with 380 pills of Tramadol opiate painkiller in her luggage, whose possession without a prescription is a felony in Egypt.

The Red Sea Criminal Court convicted Plummer of smuggling the classified drug into the country and sentenced her to three years in prison, while the Briton insisted that she brought the Tramadol tablets for her Egyptian partner who suffers from chronic back pain.

Plummer's jail verdict is still appealable.

Tramadol is the number one drug abused by addicts in Egypt, according to the Drug Control Fund of the most populous Arab country. Enditem