Brothers face new drugs trial

The brothers allegedly smuggled drugs to Faro

Two brothers from the UK who spent nearly three years in jail in Portugal for drug smuggling have appeared in court for a retrial.

Graham and Andrew Stow, from Milford Haven, were arrested in 1999 after cannabis worth £3m was found under their diving boat in the port of Faro.

Graham Stow was found guilty in Portugal

In October 2001, an appeal court quashed their 12-year sentences and ordered they should be re-tried.

The new trial is expected to last just one day, Thursday, with the verdict to be announced in a few weeks' time.

The brothers, who have consistently denied the charges, had appealed against a decision to allow two of the three judges from their original trial to sit at their retrial.

They lost that appeal, so it is expected that two judges who sat at the trial which found them guilty in July 2001 will now sit at their retrial.

Portuguese jail

Andrew, 37, and Graham, 43, were sentenced to 12 years in jail after being convicted of smuggling 1.2 tonnes of cannabis into Faro in July 1999.

News of the retrial reached the brothers as they were waiting to be transferred from Faro, a remand prison, to a facility for convicted prisoners on the Portuguese island of Madeira

Andrew Stow denied smuggling drugs

The brothers had set off from Wales in their 22 metre long diving boat with the dream of setting up a diving school in Portugal.

They had stopped at the Canary Islands off the Portuguese coast before docking at the port of Faro.

The Portuguese authorities claimed the brothers brought the drugs into the port by dragging them across the seabed behind their boat.

Questions raised

But the pair protested their innocence throughout and won a chance at a new trial from the Portuguese Court of Appeal in Évora.

Dyfed-Powys Police have co-operated by drafting a letter which shows that neither brother had a criminal record or was known to the police.

The maximum sentence in Portugal for drug trafficking is 20 years.