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Straw intervenes on behalf of Briton in Simla prison

Shyam Bhatia
India Abroad Correspondent in London

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has intervened in the case of a deaf and disabled British charity worker jailed in India for possessing cannabis.

Human rights campaigners in London claim that Ian Stillman, 50, is the victim of a miscarriage of justice and should not be languishing in a Simla jail after being sentenced to 10 years in jail by a sessions judge in Kulu.

Officials in the British foreign office said on Tuesday that Stillman's case was taken up in what was originally intended to be a courtesy call on Straw by India's High Commissioner Nareshwar Dayal and visiting Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra.

Mishra, who was passing through London on his way to Washington, DC, had intended to use his stopover in London to meet Straw and congratulate him on his new appointment after the British general election.

Instead, he and Dayal found themselves involved in what British officials told rediff.com was a "very frank and hard-hitting" meeting with Straw.

A spokeswoman for the foreign office said: "The foreign secretary had a meeting on other business with Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the Indian prime minister, and Shri Nareshwar Dayal, the Indian high commissioner.

"The foreign secretary raised our concerns about Mr Stillman's welfare and offered to follow that up with further details in a letter.

"We have raised concerns about his welfare, not whether or not he had a fair trial."

Stillman, who has an artificial leg and has been stone deaf since the age of two, is appealing against the sentence imposed earlier this month after he was arrested in the Kulu valley last August and charged with possessing 20 kilos of charas.

Family and friends back in England, who insist his conviction was a miscarriage of justice, say his health is now deteriorating and he is in no state to remain in a cell.

According to the foreign office, Stillman has been moved to a more comfortable prison near Simla after his family reported he was sleeping on a concrete floor.

Instead of sharing a cell with 38 other inmates, he now has a room he shares with one other prisoner. According to reports reaching the United Kingdom from India, he spends up to 20 hours a day on his prison bed and suffers from phantom pains because his artificial leg is worse than useless.

He has also complained to his son Lennie, who is visiting India, that he could not follow what was going on at his trial, partly because the judge was involved in a long personal conversation with the court stenographer.

Stillman, originally from Reading in Berkshire, set up the Nambikkai Foundation in 1978 to provide training, employment and education for deaf persons in India. He also advises Indian officials on issues relating to the deaf.

At his trial last August, he said the 20kg bag of charas found in his taxi actually belonged to an Israeli who happened to be travelling with him. But the Himachal Pradesh police dismissed the claim, saying the narcotics were found in Stillman's bag.

A high-ranking Indian police source told rediff.com that when foreign nationals come up before Indian courts, every care is taken to ensure that their conviction is proved beyond all reasonable doubt.

"He understood everything that was read out to him in court, we refute all his allegations," the police source added.

Stillman is due back in court next month, but his family and campaigners like Stephen Jakobi of Fair Trials Abroad say he has not been told why.

Jakobi says this is "the worse miscarriage of justice" he has ever experienced.

Stillman's sister Elsepth Dugdale said, "We are heartened by the interest being shown, but Ian needs help as soon as possible as, unable to speak or understand Hindi, he is increasingly isolated.

"If he gets bail he can't and won't abscond as India is his home. His wife and his two children and his many charities are there. He wants a chance to prove his innocence."

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