Veteran sees Afghan charges dropped

An Army veteran who claims he was wrongly jailed in Afghanistan has launched an appeal against his conviction, the Foreign Office said
12 April 2012

Charges against an Army veteran who claims he was wrongly jailed in Afghanistan have been dropped, the Foreign Office said.

Father-of-three Bill Shaw, 52, from Leeds, was jailed for two years in March and fined £16,000 after being found guilty of bribing officials.

But he was acquitted following an appeal in the Afghan capital Kabul.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are pleased for Mr Shaw and his family.

"We welcome the appeal court's decision which is now subject to finalisation in the Supreme Court.

"The UK continues to strongly support the work of the Afghan government to counter corruption and reinforce the rule of law in Afghanistan."

Mr Shaw's family have always claimed his original trial was a "sham", insisting the charges against him were "totally misconceived" and "not proven".

During the trial, Mr Shaw said he paid for the release of two vehicles that were impounded.

He explained that he believed he was paying a legitimate fine which was fully documented and approved in accordance with his company's procedures.

He insisted he had not offered a bribe at any time.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in