CORRUPT POLICE HAVE MADE PARADISE HELL

FROM her cockroach-infested prison cell in Goa, Alexia Stewart can't
see the Western tourists who flock to Fort Aguada in Goa, one of the
coastal states of India. But they're up there, strolling the 17th-century
ramparts, gazing at the white beaches, congratulating themselves on
finding palm-fringed paradise just 11 hours by package flight from
Gatwick Airport. Under their feet, in the squalid, fetid jail built
beneath the Fort, Alexia is living in hellish conditions. The
28-year-old daughter of an Oxford don is serving a 10-year jail
sentence for possessing 165g of cannabis. She insists the drugs were
planted by corrupt local police. Her father Philip, who teaches human
sciences, says the case was based on "shoddy evidence". He has flown
to Goa in the latest stage of a battle to free Alexia and her
boyfriend Gary Carter from jail. Their appeal against conviction began
yesterday. Given the tortuous Indian legal system, a quick outcome
looks unlikely.

The happy go lucky, hippy-dippy reputation Goa has enjoyed since the
Sixties has been soured by stories similar to Alexia's. Many tourists
have claimed they are framed by police if they refuse to pay hefty
bribes. About ?2,000, in Alexia's case. "The police have done this
because we refused to pay them," she said earlier this year. "How can
they live with their consciences?

"I know all this could have been avoided if we had just paid up, but
we felt the injustice there and then." Now, Alexia would pay anything
in exchange for her freedom. She advises fellow travellers who fall
foul of the police to pay up without a murmur. "I would say to anyone,
'just give them the money' because it seems you can't beat them."

Each year, around 100,000 Britons travel to Goa, the former Portuguese
colony. It earned its hedonistic reputation in the Sixties when it was
"discovered" by Westerners following the so-called Kathmandu Trail.
Thirty years on, Goa still offers nine months of sunshine every year,
very cheap food and drink - and very cheap drugs.

The rave scene is blossoming on its beaches. Monthly "Full Moon"
parties are organised by Westerners who have settled in the region;
these have even spawned a form of dance music known as "Goa Trance".
Goa "charas", as marijuana is known, is so readily available, so
nonchalantly smoked in clubs and restaurants, that tourists might be
forgiven for thinking the authorities were prepared to turn a blind
eye. They would be wrong.

The charity Prisoners Abroad has 20 years' experience of working in
India, helping visitors who fall foul of local laws, despite Foreign
Office warnings of "severe penalties" for drug abuse. Its director
Carlo Laurenzi says: "Tourists and backpackers are particularly
vulnerable due to the confusion over the legality of cannabis
possession." In fact, the Indian government has clamped down, making
little distinction between soft and hard drugs. Anyone charged with
illegal possession risks a mandatory 10-year jail sentence and, under
Indian law, you are guilty until proved innocent. The Footprint
guidebook to Goa warns that in 18 months since November 1995, 21
foreigners have been imprisoned for drug offences. The local police
deny that bribery is rife, but many more foreigners who have been
caught smoking joints admit they have bought their way out of trouble.
"It's well known that this is a nice little earner for the Goan
police," says Rachel, a fundraiser who regularly travels to Goa. "We
were warned that the police try to catch you all the time. Sometimes,
they want to make an example of you but mostly they want money.
Friends of mine got caught on the beach. The police took them back to
the place they were staying in and hid outside while they got all the
cash they had in the house. These weren't official fines. There was no
paperwork. The cash just disappeared into police pockets."

The organisers of raves are said to pay hefty bribes for "permission"
to hold an event. Even so, they expect every festival to be
interrupted by officers demanding even more money. "They pay up
because they want to carry on until dawn and be left alone," says Rachel.

But in this corrupt culture, the innocent can find themselves
implicated along with the guilty. In Alexia and Gary's case, police
burst into the house they had rented by the beach in Vagator, northern
Goa. Alexia, who speaks five languages, had been a teacher and Gary
worked for a charity in Milton Keynes. Attracted by the easy going
lifestyle of Goa, she had begun selling clothing from a small shop and
Gary was setting up an Internet cafe. They planned to stay for six
months each year.

When the police raided their house, Alexia was not unduly concerned.
An asthmatic who didn't smoke, she was confident there were no drugs
in the house. But as policemen combed their belongings, one officer
told her that for about ?2,000 they would go quietly. On principle,
she refused to pay. Later, another officer came into the house with a
black plastic bag he said he'd found in the garden. Inside was 165g of
hashish wrapped into 48 small slabs - evidence, the police said, of
both dealing and possession. The couple insist they had never seen the
drugs before.

Alexia and Gary are not alone. In 1990, Nicholas Brown from
Oxfordshire was arrested in Goa. He, too, ended up in Aguada jail
accused of possessing hashish which he claims he never had. "My only
crime was not to bribe the police," he said in a 1992 interview from
his cell.

Nicholas spent 18 months in jail awaiting trial and was then sentenced
to 10 years. He served 23 months before being freed after his mother
mounted a vigorous campaign for an appeal which he won. The episode
cost the family an estimated ?30,000.

Another tourist, Claire Blatchford and her boyfriend Stuart Kanauros were
arrested in Goa in 1996 after a plain clothes policeman pulled a package out
of her bag while she was swimming. Claire and Stuart were told they'd have
to pay ?650 or Stuart would be jailed for 10 years. But when Claire returned
to the police station with all the money they had, the police said it wasn't
enough. Stuart had to promise to return with more money. He was made to sign
a "confession" and the police kept his passport. The officer threatened to
plant more drugs if they didn't stump up more money.
Instead, they fled to the British Deputy High Commission in Bombay and were
given emergency documents and a flight home. The commission sent Claire and
Stuart photographs of likely suspects and the couple picked out an inspector
and two other officers who were suspended. In this case, the policemen were
punished. Alexia and Gary, however, were less fortunate. Yesterday, the
Stewart family sent this message to the media, carefully worded so as not to
cause offence in Goa: "We are out here in hope and with an unshakable faith
in justice." They can only pray their faith is rewarded.