CAMPAIGNERS demanding freedom for deaf charity worker Ian Stillman have admitted their legal fight is over.

Ian's brother-in-law, Jerry Dugdale, who has just returned from a week speaking to lawyers in India, said today other options would have to be looked at.

It follows a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that it would not hear Ian's appeal.

"The legal process is finished," said Jerry.

"It looks as though the way forward has to be political. There are various options which are now being looked at, and they include trying to get the British Government to ask for his freedom."

That makes it even more important that the Evening Press's petition asking for Ian to be released is signed. It is vital that the Government sees the strength of support that he has.

Ian, 51, whose parents live in Tadcaster Road, York, and who had a leg amputated after a road accident, is serving ten years in an Indian jail for cannabis possession - a charge he has always denied.

A senior human rights lawyer called his trial "the worst miscarriage of justice I have dealt with" after he was denied a sign language translator, which effectively excluded him from taking any part.

Amazingly, an appeal judge and the Supreme Court judge ruled that he was not deaf, but merely hard of hearing.

"It seems that the problem we have got is not a legal one, but a factual one," said Jerry.

"The courts can't accept the fact that he is deaf. Even the prison authorities who know him can't believe that the judge says he isn't deaf.

"Until they accept facts, the legal process can't even start."

Jerry and Ian's wife, Sue, visited Ian three times during the trip, and broke the news to him that attempts for an appeal had failed.

"He took the news very well and he's still smiling, but you could see that he was extremely upset at the judge's comments," said Jerry.

"The judge had said the deaf were known to be involved in drug trafficking in India, and Ian seemed more upset about that than anything else."

His supporters' immediate intention is now to get Ian moved to a prison in Madras, where he would be nearer his wife and friends and have easier access to medical attention.

Recently diagnosed as diabetic, Ian also needs urgent medical attention for circulation problems which he is not getting in his current prison, in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Jerry said: "One good thing that seems to have come out of this is a marked change in the British High Commission's attitude.

"The consul was present at the Supreme Court hearing, and I think she was taken aback and shocked by what she heard."

Updated: 11:41 Monday, May 20, 2002