Briton held in Greece after newborn strangled

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ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek court has ordered a 20-year-old British woman to be held pending trial after she was charged with strangling her newborn baby on the Mediterranean island of Crete, her lawyer said on Thursday.

"The judge ordered that she be held pending completion of the trial," lawyer Zoe Lama told Reuters. "She then fainted and was taken to hospital for treatment."

The woman, identified as Leah Andrews, was charged earlier this week by prosecutors with killing her baby after giving birth in a hotel room on the Mediterranean island of Crete.

She was ordered to testify in court on Thursday after spending the previous days in a hospital in the Cretan capital Heraklion, where she was being treated for severe blood loss after giving birth unassisted early on Monday.

"She is currently in hospital and we will decide on our further course of action once she is discharged," Lama said.

Under Greek law she could face a maximum sentence of life in prison for premeditated murder if convicted.

Court officials have said that in this case many extenuating circumstances would be taken into account and prosecutors would not seek the maximum penalty.

Two other British women who were sharing the hotel room in the popular tourist resort of Malia will not be charged in connection with the case. Police have said .....continued below

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Police were notified after the woman’s two companions rushed her to hospital in Heraklion, 30 km (20 miles) west of Malia, to receive treatment after she gave birth to the baby at the hotel.

Police found the dead baby in the hotel room with sheets around its neck and covering its face. A coroner’s report concluded the child was born healthy but had died of suffocation.

Britons make up about one fifth of the 15 million tourists who visit Greece every year.

(Reporting by George Hatzidakis; Editing by Giles Elgood)