No support for jailed drivers EXCLUSIVE by Miles Brignall •
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The Foreign Office has not pressed for the release of truck driver Steve Bryant, who is currently in jail in Morocco on drugs charges, claiming that if it made an exception in his case, it would have to do the same for other drivers caught in similar circumstances.
This stance, revealed in an internal FO document seen by CM, effectively says truck drivers found with drugs in their vehicles are guilty unless proven innocent.
Bryant is four years into a 10year sentence after being stopped leaving Morocco while hauling a load of frozen squid.
Customs officers found a large consignment of cannabis resin in the load, but all the evidence unearthed by CM suggests Bryant has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
When CM visited him last month Bryant alleged the only reason he continues to be held is because the British Government has opposed his release.
Despite sharing a cell with 17 others, including murderers and paedophiles, and suffering stomach problems, Bryant appeared mentally strong and talked of how his hopes of release now rest on an appeal to the United Nations. He described how at both his trials, despite being given an interpreter, he did not understand what was going on and was simply told to plead not guilty.
In spite of all the evidence, and the fact that the man who organised the smuggling operation and ran the factory where he loaded said Bryant had known nothing of the drugs, the FO has refused ask the Moroccan Government to reexamine his case—claiming it cannot interfere in a case tried in another country.
The news will not surprise the families of other drivers held abroad who have long accused the FO of doing little to help them. The FO has promised to make a statement on these specific allegations soon.
See Comment, page 6.