A British woman was today sentenced to three years in prison by an Egyptian court for smuggling nearly 300 powerful painkillers into the country.
Laura Plummer, 33, was arrested in October after she was found carrying in her suitcase Tramadol tablets, which is listed as an illegal drug in Egypt for its wide use as a heroin substitute.
Plummer, from Hull, had claimed the painkillers were for her Egyptian husband who suffers from severe back pain, the BBC reported.
She wept as she appeared before a judge in handcuffs on Christmas morning and was suddenly handed a three-year sentence for the charge of drug smuggling, the report said.
Her family said her lawyers had lodged an immediate appeal, it added.
Plummer's sister Rachel said her mother Roberta Sinclair was "devastated" by the sentence, the report said.
"My mum's obviously devastated. She's out there by herself. We're just hoping. Even half of that would be better. Anything less than three years. She doesn't deserve that," Rachel said.
It is not clear when an appeal against her sentence might be heard.
The family has previously said Plummer had no idea that what she was doing was illegal and she was just "daft".
Sinclair said her daughter made no attempt to hide the medicine given to her by a friend and she thought it was a joke when she was first pulled over by airport officials.
She said her daughter was being held in terrible conditions in a cell with no beds, sharing with up to 25 other women.
She looked "unrecognisable", Sinclair told a TV channel last month.
Tramadol is a strong painkiller often used to treat long-standing pain when other medications have not worked.
It is legal in the UK but a banned drug in Egypt and anyone caught with it can face criminal charges.
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