French refuse help for jailed UK driver
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by Lee Kimber
• Concern is growing for the rights of British truck driver Stan Al!sop this week as he approaches his third weekin a French prison without access to a lawyer.
The 49-year-old Staffordshire driver was arrested on 15 July when Calais customs officers found heroin worth £8.5m in a sealed trailer that he had picked up minutes before. As CM went to press Allsop had not been allowed contact with his lawyer, his family or his Lichfield-based employer. Twente Express.
"Even the British consulate can't see him," says Twente managing director Trevor Paul. "But we're co-operating with the UK customs industry."
This week Twente lawyer Robert Thompson was seeking permission from a French magistrate to visit Allsop after receiving a letter from the driver requesting the firm's lawyer to represent him.
Lawyers, Allsop's employers and Fair Trials Abroad director Stephen Jakobi are at a loss to understand why the French have forbidden any contact with him. it's disgusting," says Jakobi. "The French are determined to gain a lot of publicity out of this."
They say Allsop could not have known about the drugs. hidden in a load described as -non-hazardous paper for the medical industry". becauie neither he nor the smugglers knew which trailer he would pick up.
The trailer started to collect its groupage load in Ensehede, Holland, and picked up is last consignment in Belgium. I It is thought to have bettn carrying an intact Twente seal when Allsop was arrested