Plane spotters win apology

The Foreign Office today apologised to the 12 British plane spotters and their families if officials appeared not to offer enough support to them during the crisis.

At a meeting with 10 of the spotters, Foreign Office minister Baroness Amos apologised for not keeping the families fully briefed on the situation while they were kept in jail on spying charges.

Speaking after the meeting in Whitehall, the group expressed their satisfaction and said they still intended to clear their names through the Greek courts.

The 12 plane spotters were arrested last November and held in prison for nearly six weeks but were released in December after accusations of spying were reduced to charges of gathering secret information.

Speaking before the meeting, one of the accused, Steve Rush, said poor communication between the families of the accused and the Foreign Office was one of the issues on the agenda as was "crazy" reports which have recently appeared in the Greek media.

He said: "We would like to put a couple of things forward to them. We want to have a trial as fast as possible as we're hearing that the Greeks might want to delay it until as late as 2004.

"There hasn't been any major developments recently but one thing we want to mention are reports that have been coming out in Greek newspapers.

"One of these said that when we were arrested we were in possession of high resolution satellite photographs and global position system equipment. This is just crazy."

Mr Rush's partner, Jenny Child, said families were kept in the dark about developments in Greece while their loved ones were behind bars.

She said: "There was no emotional support at all for the families.

"I felt that the attitude of the Foreign Office was that they were guilty so they've got to take the consequences which was outrageous as far as I was concerned."

Greek police arrested the plane spotters while they were on an organised visit.

They were held in prison for nearly six weeks after initially being accused of spying.

Judges freed them on bail in December after accusations of espionage were reduced to charges of gathering secret information.

Paul Coppin, who organised the trip which ended in their arrest, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I would like to see the Foreign Office and Government helping to facilitate an early trial.

"I think there is a possible chance that the Greeks will delay and delay this and leave the charges hanging over our heads.

"Having seen the how the courts work in our earlier stay in Greece, there is definitely a chance that we could get a custodial sentence, when we are innocent of the charges."

The ten plane spotters and their relatives held talks lasting around 45 minutes with Mr Howitt at the European Parliamentary office in Westminster.

They walked to the Foreign Office at nearby Whitehall for their 11am appointment with Baroness Amos posing for photographers and film crews on their way.