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British truckers accused of smuggling 'presumed guilty'
Page 14
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Specialist lawyers warn that truck drivers arrested for offences on the 2ontinent aren't getting a fair hearing. David Harris reports.
3UIL'TY UNTIL proven inno:ent: that's the problem for British ruck drivers who are accused of imuggling drugs in their loads, say :ampaigning lawyers.
Fair Trials Abroad, the organisaion that fights the corner of falsely iccused foreign nationals, says ruck drivers are more vulnerable o wrongful imprisonment than my other group.
Now ETA director Stephen 'ak obi has called on European Jnion countries to change their egal approach to foreign truckers.
Jakobi recognises that foreignIs are routinely treated less well h an nationals in the justice sysems of many countries but he identifies truckers as "a third class who suffer from all handicaps of the foreign defendants and in addi tion, more specifically, a practical presumption of guilt".
He adds: "Truckers are in effect a special underclass of defendants when facing trial as foreigners in many states of the EU."
The long-standing difficulty for truck drivers has been that they are held responsible for drugs in their cargo even when that cargo was sealed before the collection was made."
-The piecemeal victimisation of foreign truckers accused of carrying illegal cargos in circumstances that precluded their knowledge of the nature of their cargo has been a running scandal for decades," explains Jakobi. FTA says that truck drivers are particularly vulnerable compared with other workers because: • They constantly cross borders • They carry out instructions from their employers, acting on trust • They collect vast quantities of goods, pre-packed and sealed by unknown third parties • They are unable to make detailed inspections of their loads • They deliver their loads to unknown third parties The result, says Jakobi. is that -international lorry drivers are often the non-combatant casualties of international drug wars between sophisticated crossborder criminal networks."