Yorkshire woman due before Egyptian court on drug smuggling charge

Shop worker Laura Plummer, 33, from Hull, was arrested after she was found to be carrying 290 tramadol tablets in her suitcase - a painkiller which is legal in the UK but which is banned in Egypt.

Ms Plummer's family has said she was taking the tablets for her Egyptian partner Omar Caboo, who suffers from severe back pain.

They said she had no idea what she doing was illegal and was just "daft".

Last month, her mother Roberta Sinclair appeared on ITV's This Morning programme, with Ms Plummer's sisters Jayne and Rachel, and said: "She did not realise what she was doing".

She said Ms Plummer made no attempt to hide the medicine, which she had been given by a friend, and she thought it was a joke when she was first pulled over by officials when she flew into the country for a holiday with Mr Caboo.

Mrs Sinclair said her daughter was being held in terrible conditions in a communal cell with no beds, sharing with up to 25 other women. She said she looked "unrecognisable".

Ms Plummer is being held in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, where she was arrested at the airport on October 9.

Her family has been told that she could face up to 25 years in jail, with one lawyer even mentioning the death penalty.

Ms Plummer's Christmas Day court appearance was thought to be the beginning of her trial but, according to reports, there is a possibility the case could be adjourned to another date.