Free him

The deaf charity worker, who had a leg amputated after a motorcycle accident, is spending his 575th day locked in a jail after what leading civil rights campaigners have called "a travesty of justice".

Our campaign has the full support of his elderly parents, Roy and Monica, who live in Tadcaster Road, York.

Ian was convicted of possessing 20 kilograms of cannabis in June last year - a charge he has always denied - and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Only he can be completely certain of his innocence - although none who know him doubt it.

But throughout his arrest and trial, Ian has been denied access to a sign language translator. Because of his deafness, he has effectively been barred from taking any part in his own trial, or even understanding it.

"This is the worst miscarriage of justice I have dealt with," said Stephen Jakobi, the director of ten-year-old Fair Trials Abroad which works to ensure prisoners across the world are not denied their basic human rights.

"To understand and be understood at your trial is a fundamental human right, and Ian was not allowed it."

Our call on the Indian Government has already been echoed by 211 British MPs, including those representing York, Selby, Ryedale and Harrogate, who put their signatures to a demand for the Indian Prime Minister to intervene.

York MP Hugh Bayley said: "I am very keen to support this. I believe there has been a miscarriage of justice. Ian's background and charity work for others make it impossible to believe he was involved in drugs, and there are strong compassionate reasons to release him. The main thing that I can do is make sure the British representation in India is closely involved, and that is something I will continue to do." Ian, who is married and has two children, is well respected for his work with the deaf after he moved to India nearly 30 years ago.

He is responsible for setting up the Nambikkai Foundation which teaches independence skills to deaf people.

He had visited the mountainous Himachal Pradesh region, in northern India, in an effort to extend the charity, and was arrested after a taxi he was travelling in was stopped at a roadblock in August 2000.

He claims the bag of cannabis was first seen by him in the police station he was taken to. He is the only deaf man in the prison, near Simla, and his only regular communication is with his 23-year-old son, Lennie, who has moved into a nearby hotel to be able to visit him regularly.

The Evening Press hopes its readers will sign its petition as Ian prepares for an appeal to the country's Supreme Court. If he wins, it could change Indian law and give deaf prisoners an undeniable right to a translator.

His father, Roy, 77, said today: "Our family and friends have tirelessly fought to get Ian released. The more support we can get in doing that, the greater the chances of success."

A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office told the Evening Press: "We have raised Ian Stillman's case with the Indian authorities on many occasions and at a high level. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, and FCO Minister Ben Bradshaw have all separately raised concerns about his welfare with the Indians.

"We cannot get involved in the legal process and it is not up to us to comment on whether his trial was fair or not. But we will do what we can to ensure that his appeal is heard as quickly as possible, we will continue to offer him consular assistance and we will remain in close contact with his family and his lawyers."

Nobody at the Indian High Commission in London was available to comment today.

- The petition can be signed at Evening Press offices in York and Malton, where copies can also be collected. It can be printed off from the campaigns section of this website.

Updated: 11:30 Thursday, March 28, 2002