Ambassador's visit raises appeal hopes of plane spotters

The British ambassador to Greece turned up at the appeal of the 12 plane spotters yesterday in what supporters claimed was an "exceptional" show of support.

With the verdict expected today, lawyers for the group, which is appealing against espionage convictions along with two Dutch men, insisted they remained confident.

"I think that this time it is obvious that the three judges understood more about the motives of our clients... the lack of prosecution witnesses will be a weak point," their lawyer Iannis Zacharias said.

The ambassador, David Madden, said: "My presence here expresses the interest of the British Government in this case and I hope the result of the court case will be a good one."

Richard Howitt, an MEP for the East of England who has backed the group since their arrests, described the ambassador's visit as "exceptional" and a sign of the level of political support their plight has attracted.

Giving evidence during the appeal in Kalamata yesterday, Mr Howitt told the court that the group followed their hobby "almost obsessively" but it was "innocent".

"The millions of Britons who aren't plane spotters also find it rather curious, rather weird, but we also understand that it is not a crime and it is not a threat to our national security," he said. "I absolutely believe in the innocence of each and every one of the group."

Another defence witness, Mat Herben, the leader of Holland's second biggest political party, Lyst Pim Fortuyn, insisted that plane spotting was, "not only tolerated but encouraged" in his country.

The first person to take the stand on behalf of the defence yesterday, Nicolas Kassimis, the editor of a Greek plane-spotting magazine, told the judges: "If I believed these people were spies I wouldn't be here. They're not spies, they're just doing their hobby and it is because we don't know this hobby in Greece."

Squadron leader Nektarios Samaras, the key prosecution witness speaking earlier in the day, conceded that he had never heard of the hobby until the arrests. He described how the group had aroused suspicion after they were seen taking notes at a series of bases during the annual air force open day last November.

Their "very careful, very systematic" behaviour, he added, had made him so suspicious that he ordered their arrests. Cameras, films, a radio scanner and notepads were seized from the group and Mr Samaras said the most important piece of evidence was the, "great number of personal notes".

But the squadron leader appeared to have softened his stance since the trial in April when he claimed the notes were too expert to have been made by amateurs.

Yesterday, when asked if the information could have been gathered as part of a hobby, he said yesterday: "I don't know".

"I cannot say anything about that, I'm an officer in the Greek army," he added.

"This information is very important for my country, someone could pass this information and know exactly the position of the Greek army. If an enemy had this in his hands then it would cause us problems ... It could endanger the security of our country."

All the Britons and two Dutch men who were travelling with them have admitted visiting a series of air bases, and many conceded taking notes, but all vehemently deny spying and insist they were innocently pursuing their hobby with official permission to be at the bases on the open days.