Norris asked to help driver
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by Karen Miles • Campaigners working to free Steve Bryant, the British lorry driver jailed in Morocco on drugs charges, are asking for support from former Transport Minister Steven Norris.
Fair Trials Abroad has written to Norris, who is Bryant's constituency MP, telling him that the Essex driver has fallen into "deep despair" following last month's release of two Dutch and two Polish lorry drivers who were also held in Moroccan jails on drugs charges. The organisation is also appealing for help to Bryant's MEP, Hugh Kerr.
Bryant was jailed in 1994 for 12 years after cannabis was found in his trailer of frozen squid. He has always proclaimed his innocence.
The release of the Dutch and Polish drivers followed the intervention of Leonie Van Bleidel, a Dutch MP and vicechair of the European Parliament's Committee on Human Rights. Bleidel made use of a report on Morocco compiled by Fair Trials Abroad, partly funded by Bryant's dying mother, Sheila, who died of cancer in the summer after cashing in an insurance policy to help finance the research.
In his letter to Norris and Kerr, Fair Trials Abroad director Stephen Jakobi says: "Steve Bryant wrote to me in a letter that arrived yesterday, remarking on this event which leaves him in despair."
jakobi believes that the only way to secure the release of prisoners in Morocco is through vigorous action by politicians.