Indian court rejects arms dealers’ petition for release

An appeals court in Eastern India has rejected a petition for release by a British arms dealer sentenced to life in prison for smuggling weapons to a rebel group.

In February last year, Yorkshire man Peter Bleach and five Russians were sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of waging war against India after they parachuted crates of ammunition and weapons into a village in West Bengal State.

The Russians were pardoned after the Russian Government intervened.