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Successor found for Jakobi at Fair Trials Abroad
Page 12
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FAIR TRIALS AB ROAD (ETA), the organisation that campaigns on behalf of UK truck drivers wrongfully jailed overseas, has appointed a new director.
Catherine Wolthuizen, an Australian-trained lawyer, takes over from ETA founder, Stephen Jakobi,71, who has retired.
Wolthuizen is 32 and has lived in Australia for most of her life but she was born in the UK and has j oin t citizenship.
She worked in Australia as a consumer rights specialist, most recently as executive director of the Consumer Law Centre in Victoria. She explains that she made the move because she wants to work in human rights.
Wolthuizen adds that she is well aware of the number of truck drivers who need ETA's help. "I've only been here a week," she says, -but even a cursory glance at our case files shows a very high representation of drivers seeking assistance." The driver most recently released thanks to the ETA's efforts was Stephen Toplass, from Stoke, who returned home in June after two years in a Spanish jail. Toplass was given a full pardon after it was accepted that he knew nothing about 400kg of cannabis found in his trailer.
Many of the cases of wrongfully imprisoned truck drivers overseas have arisen because trailers are loaded and sealed before they are collected. Another UK driver, 61-yearold James Sheridan from Essex, was helped by ETA and acquitted this year after being charged with smuggling 600kg of cannabis in a load of paving stones. Again, he had no knowledge of the drugs.
Jakobi says he is confident that Wolthuizen is the right person for the position: "She got the job after competition with a number of incredibly high-powered applicants, so I'm very pleased to hand over to her."