Béatrice Saubin (7 September 1959 – 2 November 2007) was a French woman convicted of

drug smuggling The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

who later wrote a best-selling book about her prison experiences. Raised by her grandmother in

Romilly-sur-Seine Romilly-sur-Seine (, literally ''Romilly on Seine'') is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. Population International relations Romilly-sur-Seine is twinned with: * Milford Haven, United Kingdom * Gotha, Germany * L ...

, she dropped out of high school and travelled to Thailand, then Malaysia, having affairs with men in each country. Her Malaysian lover in Penang offered to marry her if she met him in Zurich. At age 20, in January 1980, she was detained at

Penang International Airport Penang International Airport is an airport in northern Malaysia. The airport is located near Bayan Lepas at the southeastern tip of Penang Island, south of the city centre.heroin hidden in her suitcase. While she claimed that her Malaysian lover had set her up, the Malaysian High Court rejected her story and sentenced her to death by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

in June 1982. She was the first foreign national to be sentenced to death under Malaysia's strict drug trafficking law passed in 1976. Following a public outcry in France, the High Court reduced her sentence to life imprisonment in August 1982. During her years of incarceration, she learned Malay and

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

and worked on behalf of inmates in the prison hospital. She was released in 1990 for good conduct. She authored ''L'Épreuve'' (''My Ordeal'') (1991) about her prison experiences, and ''Quand la Porte S'Ouvre'' (''When the Door Opens'') (1995) about her return to freedom.

Early life

Béatrice Saubin was born on 7 September 1959, in Troyes, France. She was the product of a liaison between her mother, Josette, a prostitute, and Sylvestre Saubin, a soldier. Her mother gave her over to the care of her mother, Marguerite, who raised Saubin in the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

. Saubin chafed at her grandmother's strictness and began hitchhiking at the age of 16 to reach places as far away as

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. Dropping out of high school, she travelled to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, became engaged to a Thai man, ran out of money, and returned home to France, where she started working as a secretary. Returning to Thailand and not finding her fiancé, she travelled to Malaysia where she met a Malaysian named Eddie Tan Kim Soo. She and Tan conducted their trysts at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel. Tan promised to marry her if she would meet him in Zurich. On 27 January 1980, Saubin went to

Samsonite Samsonite International S.A. () is an American premium luggage manufacturer and retailer, with products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. The company was founded in Denver, Colorado, United States. Its r ...

suitcase was put through the airport x-ray scanner upon check-in, officials discovered 22 packets containing of pure grade heroin with a street value of over RM300,000 hidden in the lining. Saubin was arraigned before a Malaysian judge on charges of drug smuggling, as the government claimed she was planning to sell the heroin in France. Saubin denied the charges and any knowledge of the drugs. She said the suitcase had been given to her by Tan, and that he must have put the heroin inside it. The judge did not accept her story and doubted the existence of Tan. He ordered Saubin placed in solitary confinement until an appeal would be heard. In the appeal hearing on 17 June 1982, Justice Datuk Bigley Lee Tian Huat of the Penang High Court sentenced Saubin to death by

. She was the first foreign national to be sentenced to death under Malaysia's strict drug trafficking law, which had been adopted in 1976. According to the law, anyone in possession of more than of heroin or

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. T ...

was subject to the death sentence or life imprisonment. Saubin's Malaysian attorney, K. Kumaraendran, who had defended other accused drug traffickers, filed an appeal. He did not allow her to plead guilty in exchange for the prosecution's offer of a life sentence with parole, since she had stated she was innocent. Saubin continued to maintain her innocence and garnered favourable public opinion both in France and Malaysia, where many locals believed her sentence to be too harsh. Saubin's grandmother flew to Malaysia to support her. Saubin's case was publicised by French television and ''

Le Journal du Dimanche ''Le Journal du dimanche'' (English: ''Sunday's newspaper'') is a French weekly newspaper published on Sundays in France. History and profile ''Le Journal du Dimanche'' was created by Pierre Lazareff in 1948. He was managing editor of '' Fran ...

'' launched a petition calling for her release which was signed by prominent French doctors, professors, writers, and entertainers. Responding to the public pressure, on 25 August 1982, the Malaysian High Court reduced Saubin's sentence to life imprisonment. The court stated that the evidence had not changed, but "extenuating circumstances" justified a reduction of the sentence. The court noted that its decision should not be cited as

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

. In fact, the following year in another drug trafficking case, the High Court upgraded a life imprisonment sentence to a death sentence, stating that since the previous judiciary panel had not specified what the extenuating circumstances were, its life imprisonment ruling applied to Saubin's case alone. Kumaraendran, Saubin's attorney, opined that with time already spent in prison and time off for good conduct, Saubin could serve as few as eleven years.

Prison life

Following the reduction of her sentence, Saubin continued to receive public support and enjoyed special privileges as a "celebrity prisoner". She was given her own jail cell with a mattress, a supply of cigarettes and reading material, a cassette tape recorder, and music tapes. She also received visitors, including a French Catholic priest, a French nun, and French writer Didier Decoin, whose 1984 book ''Béatrice en enfer'' (''Béatrice in Hell'') blamed Saubin's conviction on judicial error. Saubin spent her years in prison building herself intellectually and emotionally. She learned Malay and

, and developed close relationships with other women prisoners. During her last three years in prison, she worked in the prison hospital assisting other inmates. In 1990, she was released from prison for good conduct. She emerged wearing a

chador A chādor ( Persian, ur, چادر, lit=tent), also variously spelled in English as chadah, chad(d)ar, chader, chud(d)ah, chadur, and naturalized as , is an outer garment or open cloak worn by many women in the Persian-influenced countries of I ...

to avoid attracting attention.

Books

In 1991 her book ''L'Épreuve'' (''My Ordeal'') was published by

Éditions Robert Laffont Éditions Robert Laffont is a book publishing company in France founded in 1941 by Robert Laffont. Its publications are distributed in almost all francophone countries, but mainly in France, Canada and in Belgium. It is considered one of the most ...

. Filled with brutal descriptions of life in a Malaysian women's prison, it sold 170,000 copies. The book won the Prix Vérité literary award in 1991. It was translated into English as ''My Ordeal: Ten Years in a Malaysian Prison'' (1994). In an article published in '' Le Point'', Karen Berreby, a member of Saubin's legal team who visited her in prison on eleven occasions and interviewed her on tape for a total of 25 hours, questioned the factual accuracy of some scenes in the book. While Berreby did not dispute Saubin's suffering, she suggested that the prisoner used her intelligence and physical beauty to secure for herself better conditions than she described. Berreby said:

"Her relationship with her conditions of detention and her release is far from anything I've witnessed. The portrait, for example, of Hamidah, the director of the Penang Women's Prison, is on the verge of slander. Some witnesses from this period even paint a portrait of a pampered prisoner, who 'only had to ask the cook for lemon chicken for him to make it'. Not to mention the little Chinese girls who washed her clothes".

In 1995 Saubin published her second book, ''Quand la Porte S'Ouvre'' (''When the Door Opens''). This time her publisher, Éditions Robert Laffont, ordered an initial printing of only 25,000 copies, believing that an account of gaining one's freedom would sell less than Saubin's first, vivid account of prison life.

Later life and death

After her release, Saubin resided in a large apartment in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Though she had been healthy in prison, she began drinking and developed

anorexia Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gre ...

in later years. She lived on a disability pension but was eventually forced to sell her apartment. Saubin was found dead from heart failure in her home in Paris on 2 November 2007, aged 48. She was buried near her mother in Villemoyenne.

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saubin, Béatrice 1959 births 2007 deaths 20th-century French women writers Prison writings People from Troyes French people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of Malaysia People convicted of drug offenses French prisoners sentenced to death