Pubdate: Wed, 22 Dec 2004
Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright: 2004 BBC
Contact:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/558
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

TRUCKER FIGHTS TO PROVE INNOCENCE

A former haulage boss who was jailed in France after cannabis was found in 
his lorry is taking his fight for justice to the European Court of Human 
Rights.

Dave Stevenson, from Hastings, in East Sussex, was arrested in November 
2002 after picking up a sealed trailer of lighting equipment in Calais.

He was stopped near the Belgian border where a quarter of a ton of cannabis 
was found packed in his cargo.

He was jailed three days later, but has said vital evidence was ignored.

He was sentenced to two years by a French court, and released seven months 
ago after serving 18 months.

However, Mr Stevenson said he never met his defence solicitor and was not 
allowed to call his family until after the trial.

He said the tachograph on his lorry, which measured his distance and speed, 
proved he did not stop anywhere long enough in France or Belgium to have 
loaded the drugs himself as it would have taken hours to conceal them so 
carefully.

"The French never analysed the tachograph," he said.

Specialist lawyers in the UK have apparently agreed there is no case to 
answer, but they have no power in France.

Mr Stevenson has been unable to work since the conviction for drug 
trafficking and is not expecting to hear the result of his appeal for at 
least another year.
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