Justice for planespotters is long overdue

12.00.00am GMT Mon 4th Nov 2002

A West Midlands Euro-MP is calling for the Greek courts to throw out the charges against the 12 British and 2 Dutch planespotters today who were convicted on spying charges in April.

Since his arrest last year, Liz Lynne MEP has campaigned on behalf of her constituent Wayne Groves, a Tamworth resident who was given a one-year suspended sentence for "aiding and abetting" espionage. She has asked in the past the European Council of Ministers to consider the case and called for the European Parliament to pass an Urgency Resolution on the issue.

Commenting in advance of the appeal today, Liz commented:

"There are some grounds for hope that the planespotters' convictions will today be quashed, but this is by no means certain. The Greek justice system has been brought into disrepute over this. I believe the main reason for the guilty verdicts is that the Greek authorities can save face or keeping fourteen people in jail for six weeks before Christmas without charge or trial. There is evidence to suggest that the Greek security service exerted improper influence over the court that originally convicted them."

"Either way, the whole case has been a gross over-reaction to a few people pursuing a legitimate hobby. Furthermore, the Greek system of imposing stiffer sentences if appeals fail creates discourages people to attempt to clear their names.

"EU citizens deserve reassurances that they will be treated fairly in courts in all EU countries. I hope it does not come to this, but if necessary I would support the planespotters in taking this all the way up to the European Court of Human Rights to get their names cleared."