Chennai Six: British ex-soldiers jailed in India win appeal

Six former British soldiers arrested while working as guards on a US anti-piracy ship in the Indian Ocean and jailed on weapons charges in 2013 were acquitted by an Indian court today.

The so-called Chennai Six were part of a group of 35 crew members whose convictions were overturned, says ITV News.

The crew worked aboard the MV Seaman Guard Ohio, which was boarded by the Indian coastguard in October 2013. They were charged with taking weapons into India’s territorial waters, but argued that the weapons were lawfully held for anti-piracy purposes and that their paperwork, issued by the UK, was in order.

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According to the BBC, the ship was owned by an American company that offered armed protection services to vessels in an area known as “pirates’ alley” between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

The charges were initially quashed, but following an appeal by the Indian authorities, the men were convicted in January 2016 and sentenced to five years in jail.

The six British men are: Nick Dunn from Ashington, Northumberland; Nicholas Simpson from Catterick, North Yorkshire; Ray Tindall from Chester; Paul Towers from Pocklington, East Yorkshire; John Armstrong from Wigton, Cumbria; and Billy Irving from Connel, Argyll. Armstrong’s sister and Irving’s fiancee were appearing live on BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire programme when they got the news, via a text message, from friends in the courtroom in India.

A British lawyer told Newcastle’s Chronicle Live that the ex-servicemen were victims of a miscarriage of justice.