Irish prisoner in Ecuador may be repatriated soon

The Department of Foreign Affairs expressed the hope yesterday that Ecuador will allow an Irish mother of two, who is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Quito for drugs offences, to be repatriated.

A spokeswoman for the department said it was possible Dubliner Róisín Zoe Savage would be transferred back to Ireland within a couple of months.

Fresh hopes for the woman's return coincided with a visit yesterday to Savage in El Inca prison by the honorary Irish consul to Ecuador, Dominique Kennedy.

Fianna Fáil TD Pat Carey, who is involved in the campaign to bring Savage home, said there were rumours of a repatriation date in mid-September.

However, he said, nothing had been confirmed and "things are changing quite regularly out there".

Savage (30), a freelance journalist who had been living in London with her husband and two adopted children, claims to have had drugs planted on her during a visit to Ecuador in February 2003 by a friend.

On leaving the country, the man gave her a haversack purportedly containing presents for her family. But when it was searched at Quito airport, 2.6kg of cocaine was discovered in the lining.

Her conviction and eight-year sentence for drugs smuggling has been criticised by the international watchdog group, Fair Trials Abroad. Savage has claimed that an investigating police officer had written to the court vouching for her innocence but the letter was deemed inadmissible.

The campaign for her release gained fresh impetus last month when Ecuador signed up to an international convention on the repatriation of foreign inmates.

The Strasbourg Convention allows a prisoner to be repatriated, for either completion of a prison sentence or pardon, if both countries involved and the prisoner consent to the move.

The department spokeswoman said: "Strictly speaking, legally we won't be able to guarantee that she will be transferred but negotiations are under way to do the best we can for her under the circumstances.

"While the Strasbourg Convention does not come into effect in Ecuador until November 1st, it's possible they may be a bit more lenient and that she could be transferred before that," the spokeswoman added.