Petition handed into Parliment to help free Liverpool & Chester men jailed in India
Campaigners are in Parliament today to mark 1000 days since two soliders from Liverpool & Chester were arrested in India.
Campaigners are in Parliament today to mark 1000 days since two soliders from Liverpool & Chester were arrested in India.
Paul Towers from Bootle and Ray Tindle from Chester were arrested alongside four other men in 2014 when a ship they were on strayed into Indian Waters.
Earlier this year they were sentenced to five years in prison for firearms charges but we're still no closure to getting a date to appeal.
Today the families of the six Brits are in London to lobby Parliament and hand in a signature with more than 350,000 signatures.
The Revd Canon Ken Peters, Director of Justice and Public Affairs, The Mission to Seafarers, will be speaking at the Parliamentary Lobby. He said: “Yet again we are bringing to the attention of all, the fact that men tasked with protecting seafarers from pirate attack are themselves ‘under attack’.
"The unwarranted detention of the crew of the MV Seaman Guard Ohio, in India, because of their possession of armaments used to defend against criminal violence, has dragged on for 1,000 days.
"There is still no end in sight for the judicial process which has been subjected to adjournment after adjournment, delay after delay. Whilst pirates roam free, the crew and guards are held in prison.
" This really is the wrong way round. We hope that common sense will prevail, the injustice recognised and the men released to be with their families, at home with loved ones."
Lisa Dunn, sister of Nick Dunn one of the men jailed, said: “For 1000 days now, my brother Nick and our family have had to try to get through the most immense pain and anguish knowing that he and his colleagues are at the centre of a devastating miscarriage of justice.
"To sustain this for one day was excruciating enough but the suffering we feel 1000 days on is truly indescribable. Never would any of us have ever imagined back in 2013 that we would still be living through this very real nightmare in 2016.
"My brother and his 34 colleagues are currently locked away in a prison after being handed a five year sentence in January, having to exist in the most horrific of conditions when there is overwhelming evidence proving their innocence.
"This is what I am fighting for and this is what I will continue to fight for until they are all back home safely with their families. I will not give up the fight for justice and their freedom.”
You can support the petition to bring the men home HERE.