Date: 27 October 2004
The applicant is J.M. Edwards, British national. On 9 August 1994, following a surveillance and undercover operation, Mr Edwards was arrested in a van in the company of an undercover police officer. In the van was a briefcase containing 4.83 kilograms of 50% pure heroin. On 7 April 1995 he was convicted of possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment. He appealed unsuccessfully. An application by the prosecution to withhold material evidence had been granted on the ground that it would not assist the defence and there were genuine public-interest reasons for not disclosing it. The judge had also refused a request to exclude the evidence of the undercover officers. The applicant complained, under Article 6.1 of the Convention, that he had been deprived of a fair trial because he had been entrapped into committing the offence by agents provocateurs and the procedure followed by the domestic courts concerning non-disclosure of evidence had been unfair.
(from the official press-release prepared by the Registry Office of the European Court of Human Rights)
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