Soldiers 'were not illegally detained'

A claim by three British soldiers accused of killing a young Danish woman that their arrest was unlawful was rejected by the Cypriot government yesterday.

The attorney-general, Alecos Markides, said Cypriot police had every right to detain the soldiers in September 1994 during an alert for three men in a car who had kidnapped tour guide Louise Jensen, 23. They were stopped at a police roadblock shortly after the reported abduction and were detained because they and their vehicle fitted the description of those wanted for the kidnapping.

Pte Alan Ford, 27, from Birmingham; Pte Justin Fowler, 27, of Falmouth, Cornwall; and Pte Jeff Parnell, 25, of Oldbury, West Midlands - who were serving with the Royal Green Jackets Regiments on the island - have all pleaded innocent to charges of manslaughter, kidnapping and conspiracy to rape. The case continues tomorrow.