Family seek release of train robber Biggs
"I regard my father as a political prisoner," his son Michael said after the appeal was launched at London's High Court yesterday. "Terrorists and paedophiles get better treatment."
Biggs, who cannot eat or speak properly after several strokes, is in the hospital wing of London's top security Belmarsh prison, where he is serving the remainder of a 30-year sentence given in 1964 for one of the most notorious heists.
He and 11 others robbed a Glasgow-to-London mail train in 1963 and made off with £2.6 million about £30 million (€45 million) in today's money.
Biggs was caught and sentenced the following year but escaped from Wandsworth prison after just 15 months, fleeing first to Australia and then as police closed in to Brazil. His playboy lifestyle in Brazil turned him into a criminal legend, spawning several films and making heroes out of villains in the eyes of millions of people around the world.
Biggs returned to Britain and surrendered to the police in 2001 after 36 years on the run.
Family and supporters say it is time the authorities have mercy on a man reduced to communicating with a touch-board and eating liquids through a pump-operated feeding tube. If not freed, they argue, he should be moved to a lower-security jail.
"We are most concerned that the high-security conditions to which Mr Biggs is currently subjected do not comply with the law and are unnecessary given his inability to speak, eat or walk any distance," his lawyer Kristen Bender said.
"The Prison Service is retaliating against a sick, elderly man for an escape nearly 40 years ago, rather than punishing him appropriately and legally for the crime he committed."
Biggs's legal team said the High Court should decide within weeks whether their case warrants a hearing.
"We are always confident, but it's down to the clemency of the government which always makes us less confident," said friend and spokesman Kevin Crace.
Biggs has previously appealed directly to the British government to free him, with no success.
British authorities would not be drawn on the case yesterday, beyond saying he was being well looked after.
"We can't discuss individual prisoners," a Home Office spokesman said. "What we can say, however, is that Belmarsh is a centre of medical excellence."
Biggs's son Michael said other prisons had similarly good medical attention without the high security conditions.
"My father represents no threat whatsoever now to society. He should not be in a Category A prison for hardened prisoners. He is a very frail old man," he told Sky news.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
