Ronnie Biggs story ..talk about a biased report

[alan1254]

LONDON (AFP) - Ronnie Biggs, one of the masterminds of Britain's Great Train Robbery in 1963, is making a renewed bid to be released from jail on compassionate grounds, his lawyers said Friday 77 -year-old, who is partially paralysed and can barely speak after suffering several strokes, wants to spend his remaining years with his family.

Biggs was moved last month from from Belmarsh high security prison in south-east London -- where terror detainees are normally held -- to a prison for elderly inmates in Norwich, eastern England.

Giovanni Di Stefano, a member of Biggs' legal team, wrote an email to Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

"Our client has fully appreciated this move but we are instructed to state that the said transfer cannot for one moment compensate the need and urgency for our client to spend his remaining period of life with his family for compassionate reasons," it read.

Biggs was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his part in the Great Train Robbery, in which a gang of 15 intercepted a Glasgow to London mail train on August 8, 1963, making off with 2.6 million pounds in used notes.

It was the biggest heist in British criminal history until a gang stole 53 million pounds (79 million euros, 108 million dollars) from a security depot in south-east England in February last year.

Biggs fled Britain after escaping from prison in a furniture van having spent 15 months behind bars. Following plastic surgery in Paris, he vanished to Spain, Australia, and settled in Brazil.

He spent 36 years on the run, returning to Britain in 2001 after suffering a stroke in Brazil.

The Home Office has previously refused to allow his release on compassionate grounds.

Di Stefano added: "We have also considered the question of the public feeling in the matter.

"We have asked the question as to whether the release of Mr. Biggs would provoke a public outcry and diminish confidence in the criminal justice system.

"The minister of justice will know that a number of British and foreign news media have all supported the call for Mr Biggs to be granted compassionate release.

"We can also confirm that we have now nearly 7,000 letters from individuals supporting a petition to Her Majesty The Queen for the prerogative of pardon ................................. AFP news report this morning , it is totaly accepted even by the crown that Biggs was a bit player and a petty crook and certainly was not 'one of the masterminds'