There has been a major breakthrough in the battle to free six Britons - including a Wigton soldier - from an Indian jail.

The men, known as the Chennai6, have been campaigning for their freedom ever since their arrest in October 2013, but that stepped up following their conviction in January 2016.

They were sentenced to five years in Puzhal prison - India's maximum security jail - for illegally possessing firearms in Indian waters.

Among them is John Armstrong, 30, whose family and community have been helping lead the fight to bring the men home.

The Britons were among 35 men working as pirate hunters for the American firm AdvanFort when their vessel, theSeaman Guard Ohio, sought refuge from a storm in an Indian port.

John and the others have always maintained their innocence, even publishing copies of their firearms licences, issued by the British government.

They appealed their conviction in November last year, but the judge reserved his judgement and has yet to rule on the appeal.

In the Supreme Court on Monday, made public today, the judge was asked to give his verdict within 14 days.

It comes after the court heard an appeal by a Ukrainian man, one of the 35 crew members arrested, who has terminal cancer.

The Supreme Court has said that the Right to Life extends to a right to die with your family around you, and has ordered the Government of Chennai to release him into a private hospital and get his family out to be with him, or to send him home.

As part of that appeal, the case of the men - including the Chennai6 - was also discussed, and the court raised concerns.

This means that the six Britons - all former members of the Armed Forces - will either become free men, or their conviction will be upheld. However, if the latter were to happen, then the families can take the appeal straight to the Supreme Court without delay.

John's sister, Joanne Thomlinson, 32, also of Wigton, welcomed the news, described by the men's lawyer as "a significant development".


Joanne Thomlinson "It means that after a year and nine months of waiting, we're finally going to have some answers and some decisions," she told the News & Star.

"Obviously we've got no indication of which way it will go, but it means things are moving which is what we and the men have been fighting for.

"It's the first positive news - that something is going to happen - we've had since the men were convicted."

Joanne is currently in India with Yvonne MacHugh, whose fiancé Billy Irving is also one of the Chennai6.

The 29-year-old, from Glasgow, added: "It's the first time in a very long time that I feel happy with what's happening.

"There is hope that within two weeks we could have the answers we've been waiting for, for almost two years.

"The fact that we can deliver the news to the men while we're out here gives our visit added purpose and we can tell them that there's hope, and to hang in there."