Bryant quits hunger strike
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by Karen Miles • Essex owner-driver Steve Bryant has ended his four-week hunger strike after securing changes in his jail conditions and assurances on the date of his appeal case. Bryant is two-and-a-half years into a 10-year sentence following his conviction for smuggling cannabis in his load of frozen squid. He has always maintained his innocence.
To the relief of his family, friends and others campaigning for his release, Bryant has been moved out of the rat-infested cell in Tangier jail he shared with 42 others into a dual cell.
Ile has been told that within 45 days he will be given a date for his appeal to the Moroccan Supreme Court.
The concessions from the Moroccans came last week as fears grew that Bryant was close to inflicting permanent damage on his brain and heart if he continued his 26-day fast.
The prison governor is to personally take the 42-year old to a public hospital to have his longstanding stomach ulcer problem treated and he is to be allowed more frequent visits to the prison gym and library.
The moves follow pressure on Morocco's ambassadors in London and Brussels by Bryant's Burn MP Hugh Kerr, the legal pressure group Fair Trials Abroad, Commercial Motor and individual hauliers.
Bryant's father Peter is now expected to request a pardon for his son—Moroccan law imposes an automatic prison sentence for the possession of drugs, whatever the defence.