No reprieve for jailed Brits • Peter Hobbs and John
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Mills, the lorry drivers sentenced to serve seven-and-a-half years in a Bulgarian jail for smuggling 20.5kg of heroin, have had their jail terms confirmed in a district appeal court.
The appeal against the result of a retrial ordered by the Bulgarian Supreme Court last year (CM 9-15 Oct 1997) was heard on 9 March. But Stephen Jakobi of legal pressure group Fair Trials Abroad says the accused and their lawyers were given virtually no notice of the hearing. "This is a clear breach of the European Convention of Human Rights," he says.
Jakobi advises that the men should now go to the Supreme Court and appeal against the sentences there. Danneke Neale, of the Driver's Family Help Line, says she imagines the two men will try and get a prison transfer back to the UK.
Friends of Steve Bryant are appealing for Maidstone driver John Jones, who spent time in a Moroccan prison with Bryant, to contact them. Contact David Cook on 0802 431597.