SANDRA GREGORY'S APPEAL TO THE KING OF THAILAND

EDM number 32 in 1999-00, proposed by Malcolm Bruce on 17/11/1999.

That this House calls on the Government for an early completion of the review of Government policy towards supporting appeals by British citizens convicted of criminal offences under foreign jurisdictions in terms that would enable them to support the appeal to His Majesty, the King of Thailand, due to be heard in December on behalf of British citizen, Sandra Gregory, who pleaded guilty in 1993 to trying to export 88 grams of heroin and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, which was subsequently reduced in a royal amnesty to 21 years and 10 and a half months, who served three years of her sentence in Bangkok, and continues to be held in a high security prison in the United Kingdom where there is growing support for her release on the grounds that she was a first time offender not a drugs baron; deeply regrets her offence and wishes to warn others of the dangers of drugs, was suffering from dhengi fever and amoebic dysentery at the time of the offence, weighing only 6 stone, 30 per cent. below her normal bodyweight, is a model prisoner who presents no threat to society and has secured widespread public support, including politicians of all parties, all the major churches and national, regional and local media, all factors in mitigation of the offence that would certainly commend themselves to the Thai authorities, especially if the case for clemency were endorsed by the British Government.

This motion has been signed by a total of 58 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.