I'm innocent

Andy's lawyer revealed that the court hearings involving 12 plane spotters could take two days to complete. Each member of the group, who face accusations of spying after being arrested at a military airbase near the Greek town of Kalamata, was involved in a hearing before examining judge Socrates Gavalas at the town's court. Individual hearings are understood to be taking about two hours, and Andy's was expected later today or tomorrow.

Even after the hearings have been completed in each case, the defendants are still not told of the outcome. It is understood a mass verdict will be given when the hearings have finally ended.

Lawyer Ioannis Zacharias added that the group's arrest may have been down to three factors which had nothing to do with the plane spotters themselves.

The first was the terrorist attacks of September 11; the second was widespread fear over the safety precautions being taken for the 2004 Olympic Games, to be held in Athens; and the third was that Greece's American ambassador had criticised security at the country's military installations.

"The ambassador was running round the air bases like a chief of security, saying 'this isn't right, that isn't right' and it caused great concern.

"It was after this that the group were arrested," Mr Zacharias said.

Even if group members are released, they will be taken back to the prison at Nafplion to be discharged. The journey to the prison, where the men in the group have been held, takes three hours over treacherous mountain terrain.

As he arrived at court, looking dishevelled and unshaven but in good spirits, Andy declared: "If there's any justice in the world, we will see it today."

He spoke of his concern for his father Edwin in York, saying: "Tell Dad to make sure he takes care of himself."

He then asked how York City did last weekend.

When asked how he felt today, he replied: "I've done nothing wrong, so why should I feel guilty?"

One of the group, Steve Rush, shouted: "This is disgusting treatment, shocking. It's the first time I have visited an air show, and then I spend three weeks in prison for it. Obviously somebody, somewhere, has got a bee in their bonnet."

The group was then ushered away into a locked waiting room to await the hearings.

Mr Zacharias said the judge had three options:

free Andy entirely

detain him for trial

release Andy on the condition that he remains in Greece while the judge decides whether to press ahead with charges for other members of the group.

The lawyer warned that an air force report submitted to the court could lead to "very serious" extra charges for some in the group, which could further complicate the proceedings.

But earlier today he was still hopeful in Andy's case. Other Britons in the group included 51-year-old grandmother Lesley Coppin and her husband, Paul, 45 of Mildenhall, Suffolk, who runs Touchdown Tours, the organiser of the week-long trip.

Mr Coppin appeared before the court in a two-hour closed session. The other members of the group were also expected to be seen separately.

Mrs Coppin said she would rather die than spend 20 years in jail in Greece and said she had mentally prepared herself in case she was not freed. "I would try to escape and get myself shot because it has got to be a better way of finishing your life than in a Greek prison," she said in a telephone interview with GMTV, from the police station in Kalamata.

She was in a cell with 17 other women, which had one shower and two toilets, and was allowed an hour a day in the garden with some freedom to walk around the building, she said.

But her husband, who she wed in February this year, and the other men, were forced to sleep on floor mats squeezed between bunks in a tiny cell and she said he had become unwell.

Mrs Coppin said she would campaign for his freedom if she was released without him, adding: "The indications are that some of us may well be released but not everybody, and I know that Paul is not going to be one of those people."

Updated: 14:51 Tuesday, November 27, 2001