Freed six may win payouts
EX-SOLDIER ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION
WRONGLY jailed Nick Dunn could receive just $15,000 in compensation after enduring years of hell locked up in India, his lawyer has revealed.
The former paratrooper said he is considering whether he will seek a payout from the Indian Government after being acquitted of weapons charges.
Nick and five other former British soldiers were guards on a ship to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean in 2013, when they were arrested for carrying unlicensed firearms and ammunition.
The men insisted they had been granted permits by the UK Government, which the head of export controls eventually confirmed to the Indian authorities.
The charges were quashed and the former soldiers, who have become known as the Chennai Six, were released on bail but were unable to leave India.
However, they were sent back to prison in January last year when a lower court reinstated the prosecution and they were sentenced to five years in jail.
After years of the campaigning, the men won an appeal against their convictions and were given permission to leave India, flying back to the UK last week. Now Stephen Askins, a maritime lawyer who has been working closely with the Chennai Six, said they could be entitled to a payout from the Indian Government. “We could possibly look down the route of compensation since the men were wrongly convicted,” he said. “It is not going to be a significant amount of money, between $10,000 and $15,000. “We do not know how long that would take by going through the Indian legal system and that is what we would need to consider before any decision is made.” Nick, of Ashington, Northumberland, said he may seek compensation as he bids to start a new chapter in his life. “Our lawyer informed us that because we’d been acquitted, we are able to get compensation,” the 31-yearold said. “If I’m due any compensation then I’ll gladly take it because after four years, times are going to be hard unless I can get suitable work. “We’ll have to see how things go.”
I’ll gladly take it because after four years, times are going to be hard unless I can get suitable work Nick Dunn