DRUG CASE COUPLE WIN GOA FIGHT FOR LIBERTY

An Oxford academic's daughter is to be freed from jail in Goa after
spending 18 months behind bars on what her family had always insisted
were trumped-up drugs charges.

Alexia Stewart, 29, and her boyfriend, Gary Carter, 30, claimed that
Indian police planted pounds 200 worth of cannabis resin after kicking
down their door and raiding their home in Vagator, northern Goa, in
March last year. They were jailed for ten years on December 30 under a
draconian law designed to clamp down on the area's reputation for drugs.

Ms Stewart's father, Philip, 62, Director of Studies in Human Sciences
at St Anne's College, Oxford, flew to India five times to argue her
innocence on charges that the Chief Minister of Goa twice tried to
have thrown out because he believed the drugs were planted.

Yesterday a court in Panaji ruled in favour of Miss Stewart and Mr
Carter, after a week-long appeal hearing. The written judgment will
not be issued until today, but sources close to the family said that
the court had found insufficient evidence to uphold the conviction.

Yesterday Miss Stewart's mother, Lucile, 54, who works at the European
School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, said that she hoped the pair would be
home within a week, although their return could be delayed because
they have no visas.Once her release is secured, Miss Stewart intends
to stay in a hotel with her father for a few days to get used to the
idea of freedom.

"She has not been walking for 19 months and just sitting in a cell.
She maybe needs four days just seeing trees and open space. It might
be psychologically a bit different," her mother said.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "A release has been agreed by the
courts, but they won't be released for several days. What we're trying
to find out now is how long they are being detained, why they can't be
released and what help they need to get home," he said.

Miss Stewart, who ran a clothing boutique in Vagator, and Mr Carter, a
charity worker, have always protested their innocence, claiming that
police demanded a pounds 2,000 bribe and started a fight when Mr
Carter ordered them out of the house because they did not have a
search warrant.

They were held in Aguada prison for nine months before the trial,
spending 22 hours each day in their cells and existing on rice and
vegetable sauce. Both told police they would not have risked a pounds
10,000 investment in their business by becoming involved in drugs, but
they were found guilty and sentenced to the mandatory ten years in
prison after signing a false confession, wrongly believing it would
lead to their freedom.

Foreigners in Goa have long complained that police plant drugs to
extort bribes, and Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said local
police were "notoriously corrupt".