A CHARITY worker serving a ten-year sentence in an Indian jail for a drugs conviction will hear this week whether his appeal has been successful.

Ian Stillman, 51, who only has one leg and is also deaf, was convicted last June of possessing 20kgs of cannabis. He was arrested in the foothills of the Himalayas in the summer of 2000.

Originally from York, where his parents Monica and Roy still live, he is being held in a prison in Simla, north of Delhi.

Mr Stillman has suffered from health problems and, for a time, was confined to a wheelchair.

His appeal against conviction came to an end in October and legal sources in India believe the decision will be made this week, before the court breaks for a six-week holiday.

Stephen Jakobi, of the campaign group Fair Trials Abroad, said: "We are sure it will be this week, probably on Thursday or Friday."

He said: "This delay has been a problem for medical reasons.

"Ian has got some treatment in prison but it has not been ideal.

"The prison authorities are doing what they can to help him."

During the appeal Mr Stillman's lawyers argued the trial was unfair, claiming his deafness excluded him from the proceedings.

Indian police had claimed they found a green bag containing the cannabis, but Mr Stillman insisted he had never seen it before.

Mr Stillman has lived in India since the early 1970s and in 1978 he set up the Nambikkai Foundation to provide training, employment and education for deaf people.

He is also an advisor to the Indian government on deaf issues and nine years ago his work was made the subject of a BBC television documentary.

His son, Lennie, 22, is staying near the jail to be as close to his father as possible.

Mr Stillman's sister, Elspeth Dugdale, from Romsey, Hampshire, said the whole family had been living on a knife edge since the appeal was heard.

She said: "By being deaf you are so isolated. When his son goes in it is the only real conversation that Ian gets."