Driver freed in Calais
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by David Craik II A driver with Dewsburybased Sewell Distribution has been released from a Calais prison after being held for two months on suspicion of smuggling Zirn worth of cannabis into the UK in his trailer.
David Jackson, of Liversedge, West Yorkshire, was freed on 9 September after judges reviewed his case early last
week. He was arrested early in July after his as-tic was checked by Customs officials (CM 20-26 August).
Gary O'Gara, Sewell's deputy managing director designate, reports that Jackson had a tough time in jail. "His mail was held for 32 days and he was often chained up," he says. O'Gara is angry that
the French authorities did not let Sewell know immediately that Jackson had been arrested. "We only knew because one of our other drivers saw him being arrested," he says. "We could still be looking for him now."
Fair Trials Abroad director Stephen Jackobi is concerned about Jackson's experience and likens his case to that of Staffordshire driver Stan Allsop (CM 2531 July 1996).
Jackobi will meet Calais lawyers and judges at the end of September to brief them about recent treatment of drivers.
Peter Hobbs and John Mills, the London truck drivers serving seven-and-ahalf years in Bulgaria for heroin smuggling, will appear before the Bulgarian Supreme Court in October to present the latest appeal against their conviction.
Danneke Neale of Drivers Family Help Line says Mills has asked her to take his case to the Court of Human Rights if this appeal fails.