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Fresh hope for British driver
Page 16
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A British driver imprisoned abroad on drugs charges may be home
soon. David Harris reports.
BRITISH TRUCK DRIVER Steven Toplass. imprisoned in Spain on disputed charges of smuggling cannabis, could he home by spring.
Toplass's supporters have been campaigning for his release for two years. His case is one of the most notorious of several involving British drivers to be jailed after drugs were found in sealed trailers.
He was jailed for three and a half years in 2004 after 400kg of cannabis was found in his trailer, even though the UK national crime squad told a Spanish court they had evidence that Toplass had no knowledge of the drugs.
His case was taken up by Steven Jakobi. director of Fair Trials Abroad, who believes the Spanish authorities have already prepared a letter pardoning Toplass. This letter now has to be signed by a Spanish judge.
The Foreign Office is writing to the Spanish Justice Ministry asking for his immediate release.
"With luck, he should he home in two to three months,says Jakobi.
The case has also been taken up by the driver's MP, Rob Flello of Stoke-on Trent South. who is to table two written Parliamentary questions on the case this week.
Flello wants to know who makes sure that British police communicate with Continental forces in cases such as this — and at what level decisions to carry out international drugs operations are made, The only reason Toplass eventually got a Spanish lawyer was that someone else who had been helped by Fair Trials Abroad financed his representation.
"When he Roplassi returns home I shall be advising him to sue the Home Office, which has been absolutely reckless and negligent with his liberty," says Jakobi.