CAMPAIGNING mum Iris Baker has written to the Prime Minister demanding new hope in 2005 for her son Nick who is imprisoned in a Japanese jail.

Mr Baker, 33, of Stroud in Gloucestershire was caught with £1.4 million worth of ecstasy tablets and cocaine in a suitcase at Tokyo's Narita airport in 2002.

A Japanese court sentenced him to 14 years in prison and a fine of £27,000.

But Mrs Baker, who recently moved from Oaksey to Cirencester, hopes the Government will support his cause.

This year she wants ministers to intervene with the Japanese authorities and grant her son justice.

Mrs Baker said: "I know that you have many problems to solve, but I cannot understand why, when you know that Nick's human rights are abused every single day and he was not given a fair trial, you allow these abuses against a British subject without protest at Governmental level. Justice and human rights are things you would demand and rightly get for family and friends of your own."

She added: "I am hoping you will give me your assurance that you will help my son as he approaches his third year of captivity. In that time he has suffered frostbite in each of the three winters in an unheated jail. He has never been allowed to speak to his little son."

Last month, Mr Baker's lawyer Shunji Miyake said he hoped his client could be released this spring. He also felt Mr Baker's fine would be reduced even if the appeal failed. The next appeal hearing date is January 13.

For more information about the campaign, log on to www.justicefornickbaker.org