Fighting fund for jailed trucker
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• A fighting fund has been set up to raise cash and support for British driver Paul Ashwell, currently held in a Greek jail over the Iraqi "supergun" affair.
Ashwell's family turned out in force at Commercial Motor's Truckfest event last weekend to collect more than 3,000 signatures for a petition urging the Government to secure Ashwell's immediate release.
Ashwell was refused bail last Tuesday, despite the intervention of the British Government, and remains in custody in Patras, southern Greece, until his trial in eight days. His brother Darrell told Commercial MOW that with one vehicle held in Greece, Ashwell's brother-inlaw Andrew Hall is struggling to maintain the family business, Ben Haulage of Milton Keynes.
Ashwell has been in road transport for three years and runs two Leyland Daf 95s.
Russell Goff, who has second-manned with Ashwell and is heading the campaign, says that around 2350 was donated to the Ashwell fund on the first day of Truckfest alone. Anyone wishing to support the campaign or make a donation should phone the campaign on (0837) 713927.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher remains "hopeful" that Ashwell will receive a sympathetic hearing from the Greek authorities for his role in the supergun affair, although he was refused bail. Thatcher raised the issue of Ashwell's detention with the Greek premier at the recent Dublin Euro Summit, and Britain's ambassador to Greece has discussed the case with the Greek minister of justice.
"We shall continue to follow the case closely and keep under review the possibility of making further representations," Foreign Office minister Timothy Sainsbury told the Commons last week, after more than two dozen MPs signed a motion attacking the government's failure to secure Ashwell's release.
But a Labour group led by Swansea West MP Alan Williams is angry "that a British citizen is in a Greek prison because of the incompetence of British Ministers who failed to act on information previously made available to their department". The MPs hold the Government responsible for the plight of "a young man legitimately carrying out his work", and they are calling on ministers not only to secure ,Ashwell's immediate release, but to compensate him for his ordeal.
The all-party Select Committee on Trade and Industry will decide whether to investigate the case this week.
The RHA says Ashwell's fate reflects the inadequacies of the present system which punishes drivers and operators who collect loads in good faith. "The whole incident backs our argument for some kind of consignor liability," says the association, "whether in lorry weights or loads where the driver accepts the paperwork in good faith." The RHA might write to the Government to demand more action to secure Ashwell's release.
▪ A British trucker had a miraculous escape when he was shot in the face at pointblank range by two Czech bandits while he was asleep in his cab. Michael Marsden, who works for a Swiss company, was returning to Switzerland with a load from Russia when the attacker struck, in the small town of Rokycany, 1001on south-west of Prague.