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Indian envoy's help sought to plead British charity worker's case

India's High Commissioner to London Nareshwar Dayal has been asked to intervene in the case of a disabled British charity worker whose family and friends claim he has been wrongly arrested and convicted for drug smuggling in Himachal Pradesh's Kulu Valley.

Fifty-year-old Ian Stillman, who is totally deaf and had lost one leg in a motor cycle accident two years ago, told his family that he was visiting the area in the Himalayan foothills to found a new centre for his charity work with the deaf.

The Kanyakumari-based aid worker is married to a woman from Andhra Pradesh and has lived in India for 30 years. He is the founder of the Nambikkai Foundation, which provides training, employment and education for the adult deaf.

He is also an adviser to the government-backed Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped and a variety of other deaf associations, including Deaf Child India.

Last August, his family said, the taxi in which he was traveling to Manali was stopped by the police. All three occupants - the taxi driver, his companion who was sitting on the front seat and Stillman - were marched to a nearby police station.

There, Stillman claimed he was interrogated for hours on end, was given no food or allowed to rest and that the police produced a green bag filled with 20 kilograms of charas, a psychotropic substance.

The following day, Stillman was remanded to custody and lodged in a Kulu prison where he shared a crowded cell with 35 others.

it was ten months before his case came up for hearing in a court. Then, Stillman tried to explain that he was unable to follow the proceedings as he could not read Hindi.

His 25-year-old son Lennie's request to interpret for his father using sign language was turned down by the judge.

Lennie had given up his job last year to live closer to the prison.

According to Stillman's family, local police told the court they were not satisfied with the reasons he gave for his late night journey to Manali.

The taxi driver and his friend, who were called as witnesses for the prosecution, both testified that Stillman was not carrying the bag of charas.

Stillman's sister Elspeth Dugdale said, "Ian pointed out that it would be very difficult for a handicapped man with a clumsy artificial limb to balance a 20 kilo bag on his lap, as the police claimed."

Under oath, one officer changed his testimony to say the bag was resting on the back seat of the taxi.

Stillman's family say that the verdict handed down by the court runs into 17 pages and includes reasons for his conviction that were never presented during the case.

Stillman told Elspeth that he didn't want to make a fuss about the treatment meted to him for fear it would cast suspicion on all the work he has done to help hundreds of deaf people in India.

Elspeth Dugdale told rediff.com, "Ian is not a man to complain. He was worried that the people who rely on his charities might lose their jobs. He would rather endure a few months in prison because he was confident that when his case got to court, he would be found innocent and released."

Stillman's brother-in-law Jerry Dugdale, a property developer, who has visited the prison a number of times, said, "There were so many things done wrongly."

Human rights campaigners, including Stephen Jakobi, founder of Fair Trials Abroad, described Stillman's treatment thus far as 'one of the worst miscarriages of justice' they have ever encountered.

Jakobi, who has experience of campaigning on judicial cases in India said on Friday night, "We are not criticising in any way the Indian judicial system. The Supreme Court is among the most respected courts in the world, so too the appeals system. But at local level something has gone terribly wrong."

"Its like trying to make a blind man read his own evidence into the court. They tried to get him to sign documents as though he had heard and understood the court proceedings. All the money he was carrying for helping the local handicrafts trade - amounting to hundreds of pounds - disappeared, as did his personal valuables."

Stillman was never allowed to present a proper defence and the family's worry is that it might take several months if not years for the appeals process to run its course and his health simply will not stand being incarcerated for that long.

Because of Stillman's condition he needs regular medication.

His family, assisted by Jakobi and others, are now beginning an international campaign to have Stillman released on bail until his appeal is heard.

Stillman's wife, Yasumani, who lives 2,000 miles away in Nagercoil, near Kanyakumari, has only been able to make rare visits since his arrest.

His 18-year-old daughter Anita is disabled and has not seen her father since last August.

"He is willing to meet any conditions of bail required," his sister told rediff.com.

"He is not going to abscond from a country where he has lived and worked for over 30 years and which he regards as home and where he has a wife, children and thousands of people who rely upon him through the foundations which he runs across the country."

The family has written to the Indian High Commissioner in London as well as prominent figures in India, including the head of the human rights commission.

They also hope to request new British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to use his good offices on Stillman's behalf.

Last year, Straw was in Delhi to discuss with government officials ways of stopping the increasing drugs trade that passes through the Kulu Valley where Stillman was arrested.

Two days before Stillman's arrest, there was an incident involving British engineer Martin Young, who was working in Delhi.

Young was on a camping holiday with his Spanish fiancée and her 14-year-old son in the Valley when they were attacked by bandits at night. They were beaten with heavy wooden clubs and thrown into a gorge. Young survived, but his fiancée and the child were killed.

Local officials ordered the police to step up security in the area, which is popular with young backpackers.

An estimated 15 foreign backpackers have vanished in the area, which has come to be known among foreigners as India's Valley of Death.

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