Baby behind bars: Drug trafficking mother returns to jail after giving birth
Khadija Shah is being held on charges of trying to smuggle heroin worth nearly $5 million onto a flight to Britain.
ISLAMABAD:
A British woman, held in Pakistan on charges of drug smuggling, has been sent back to prison with her newborn daughter after she gave birth in a hospital, a British legal group said Sunday.
Khadija Shah, 25, is being held on charges of trying to
smuggle heroin worth nearly $5 million onto a flight to Britain.
She gave birth to a baby girl, Malaikam a few weeks ago and
returned to the Adiala prison near Islamabad. The birth was not reported until Sunday.
The baby has had no immunisations and has already had to be
hospitalised when she developed severe diarrhoea in the
prison, British legal group Reprieve said.
"To keep a baby behind bars is truly barbaric. Baby Malaika
is weak and suffering from terrible health problems while
Khadija faces execution. No mother would wish this scenario on
their worst enemy," Reprieve investigator Sultana Noon said in a
statement.
Shah has two other young children. After a period of
incarceration when their mother was arrested in May this year,
they were freed into the care of a relative.
Mothers are frequently imprisoned with their children while
their cases are heard in the congested legal system. Criminal cases can take years to complete.
A British woman, held in Pakistan on charges of drug smuggling, has been sent back to prison with her newborn daughter after she gave birth in a hospital, a British legal group said Sunday.
Khadija Shah, 25, is being held on charges of trying to
smuggle heroin worth nearly $5 million onto a flight to Britain.
She gave birth to a baby girl, Malaikam a few weeks ago and
returned to the Adiala prison near Islamabad. The birth was not reported until Sunday.
The baby has had no immunisations and has already had to be
hospitalised when she developed severe diarrhoea in the
prison, British legal group Reprieve said.
"To keep a baby behind bars is truly barbaric. Baby Malaika
is weak and suffering from terrible health problems while
Khadija faces execution. No mother would wish this scenario on
their worst enemy," Reprieve investigator Sultana Noon said in a
statement.
Shah has two other young children. After a period of
incarceration when their mother was arrested in May this year,
they were freed into the care of a relative.
Mothers are frequently imprisoned with their children while
their cases are heard in the congested legal system. Criminal cases can take years to complete.