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Foreign runs just not safe
Page 14
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ETA lawyer Stephen Jakobi says foreign groupage runs are like playing Russian roulette. Jennifer Ball reports.
FAIR TRIALS Abroad is stepping up its campaign to help free British truck drivers languishing in foreign prisons for crimes they did not commit.
Speaking at the charity's British Victims' Day, director Stephen Jakobi said that until regulations are amended, allowing truck drivers to defend themselves on the grounds that they could not reasonably be expected to know about the concealed goods, it is unsafe for any driver to carry out international work. "Truck drivers who pick up groupage particularly outside France are at risk," he warned. "It is like playing Russian roulette. While there is not a big chance that something will be planted in their load there is a random chance and
if they are caught they face jail.
"We are campaigning to get the European Union to make it quite clear that unless there is proper supporting evidence such as tachographs which show that the driver may have taken a suspicious route they should not be held responsible for the contents of a sealed trailer."
MP fights for Watson's rights
Jakobi's comments are echoed by Yorkshire MP Coln Challen who is calling for an overhaul of European law to stop truck drivers being held responsible for illegal goods found in their trailers.
Challen is acting for Paul Watson, the Yorkshire haulier held in a French prison after Customs found E500,000 worth of cannabis in a load of pottery on board his truck on the Al in Lille on 25 September (CM4 December 2003).
Challen wants consignors to be held responsible for their goods.
He is also concerned that Watson has been held for almost a year without charge and has been refused bail: "It's time to up the ante and put more pressure on the French authorities to release Paul on local bail or let him come home. Myself and local MEP David Bowe have tried to seek a permit to visit Watson in jail but have received no response.
"There is a human rights issue in refusing an MP the right to see one of his constituents and this is something we will be shouting about."
Challen and Bowe have complained to the French Embassy in London about the lack of co-operation from the French authorities.