FORMER arms dealer Peter Bleach – who spent eight years in an Indian prison after being convicted of an illegal arms drop – has been given fresh hope in his lengthy battle to clear his name.

Kim Davy, the alleged Danish ringleader of the plot to drop assault rifles, rocket launchers and anti-tank grenades over villages in West Bengal in 1995, has been arrested in Denmark and finally looks set to stand trial.

Mr Bleach, who lives near Pickering, North Yorkshire, hopes a trial will finally allow evidence to emerge which would prove his innocence.

But he said he wanted Davy to be tried in a Danish court rather than extradited to India, as he feared he would not survive in an Indian jail.

Reports in the Danish and Indian media have suggested that while the Indian government has agreed Davy will not be executed, the Indian and Danish governments are in dispute over where he should serve any sentence. Davy is reported to have lodged an appeal in the Danish courts against extradition.

Mr Bleach was captured and jailed for life for “waging war” against India after the arms drop but Davy disappeared and went on the run.

He has always claimed that he tipped off police about the arms drop in advance, speaking three times to officers in the autumn of 1995, and was told to proceed with it.

He insists he fully expected the Indian authorities to mount a sting operation to catch the perpetrators.

“All I am wanting is a public acknowledgement that I acted throughout the whole affair in good faith,” he said.

Mr Bleach was freed in February, 2004 after the intervention of former Home Secretary Jack Straw and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair.