Chennai Six: Jailed Britons acquitted in India
The group of former soldiers – including Billy Irving from Argyll and Bute – have spent more than four years jailed in the country.
Last updated 27th Nov 2017
The so-called Chennai Six have been acquitted in an Indian court after spending more than four years imprisoned in the country.
The group of former soldiers – including Billy Irving from Argyll and Bute – were first arrested in October 2013.
Friends and families have been campaigning for their release ever since.
The six were first jailed on weapons charges while working as security guards on ships to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean.
Their latest appeal concluded on November 20 in a hearing which saw the captain of the vessel, Dudnyk Valentyn of Ukraine, repatriated.
The men are 37-year-old Billy Irving, Nick Dunn, 31, of Northumberland, John Armstrong, 30, of Cumbria, Nicholas Simpson, 47, of North Yorkshire, Ray Tindall, 42, of Chester, and Paul Towers, 54, of East Yorkshire.
The group were acquitted by a judge in India on Monday morning.