IRIS Baker, whose son was sentenced to 14 years in a Japanese jail for drug smuggling, now faces a tense month-long wait, to find out whether he will be granted an appeal.

Lawyers representing the father-of-one, who is being held at the notorious Shiba Detention Centre in Japan, will submit grounds for his appeal in the next few days at Tokyo's high court.

The move follows a visit by Mrs Baker, 54, of Oaksey, near Malmesbury, and Mr Baker's lawyer, Shunji Miyake, to the European Court of Human Rights in Brussels, last week.

The two then appeared in front of a press conference in London on Friday, attended by media from around the world, including Japan.

"We should know in about a month whether the new judge is going to allow an appeal for Nick," said Mrs Baker. "If he does, it could come as quickly as March and then I will return to Japan for the proceedings.

"But if he doesn't, Nick's 14-year sentence will stand, plus, if we can't afford to pay his £27,000 fine, which we can't, he will also serve an extra 500 days hard labour, before even starting his 14-year hell."

Mr Baker, who hasn't seen his family, including partner and two-year-old son, George, since his sentencing in June, was arrested at Japan's Narita international airport in April, with 41,120 tablets of ecstasy and 990 grams of cocaine in his luggage.

He has claimed throughout his ordeal the suitcase containing the drugs belonged to a travelling companion who fled the airport when he saw Mr Baker arrested.

The man who cannot be named for legal reasons was later arrested in Belgium where he is now facing trial for similar offences.

Mrs Baker, who has been a fervent campaigner for a fair trial for her son, said: "After his arrest, Nick was shackled and interrogated for 23 days without counsel. He wasn't fed properly, he wasn't given sufficient water and he couldn't understand what the Japanese were saying to him and they couldn't understand him.

"When he was given documents to sign, he asked an interpreter what they said and was not given the right information how could this have led to a fair trial?

"Now he is living in barbaric conditions, in solitary confinement, while we try our best to get him the fair trial he deserves." Mr Baker's lawyer said the grounds for the appeal would be partly based on the fact that his client's companion now faces trial in Belgium for allegedly smuggling drugs and this case had strong similarities with the Briton's.

Mrs Baker said the knowledge that few appeals have been heard in Japan remains a constant worry to her.

"I have to just keep telling myself that the judge will be fair and that my son will have his appeal in March," she said. "I cannot bear the thought of him serving out all those years in that terrible place and I know that he hasn't the mental or physical strength to do it."

Last year, Mrs Baker with Nick's partner Bev and son George, handed in a petition of more than 1,000 signatures to 10, Downing Street asking Prime Minister Tony Blair to act on Mr Baker's behalf.

Letters from readers ease prison hell

NICK Baker spent Christmas in solitary confinement in a Japanese hell but cards from Gazette readers helped bring him a glimmer of cheer.

His grandmother, Iris, who is leading the fight to overturn his conviction which she believes is wrong said: "Over Christmas, the prison was closed and he spent seven days alone in solitary, with no visitors and no one to talk to all he would have had was the thought that it was Christmas back home, together with his memories of Christmas with his partner Bev and their two-year-old son George.

"I would think it was a very tearful and desperate time for him and I think this has probably been the closest he has come to going under."

When not in solitary confinement, Nick shares a cell with ten other men and is forced to sit on a concrete floor all day, which has left his back badly deformed.

Insufficient food has also left him two stone lighter with chronic gum and tooth pain and frostbite has deformed one of his fingers.

One glimmer of light came with messages of support from Gazette readers.

Mrs Baker had appealed in the Gazette in December for readers to send goodwill messages and she was delighted with the host of Christmas cards and letters of encouragement he received.

"Some of the cards were musical, which were apparently kept back by the guards, but I know some of them would have got through to him," she added. "And that would have lifted his spirits.

Mr Baker, 33, was arrested after attempting to smuggle 40,000 ecstasy tablets and a large quantity of cocaine out of Japan in 2002.

In June 2003, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison and has just spent Christmas and his 33rd birthday in the notorious Chiba Detention Centre near Tokyo.

But Mr Baker says he was duped into carrying the drugs by a fellow traveller and, although that traveller was subsequently arrested in Belgium for tricking other travellers into carrying bags for him, this information was not laid before the Japanese court, which passed Mr Baker's sentence. "We believe this information could force an appeal for Nick," said Mrs Baker.

Messages of support for Mr Baker can be sent to: Nicholas Baker, Chiba Detention Centre, 192 Kaizuka-Cho, Wakabu-Ku, Chiba-Shi, Chiba-Ken, 2640023, Japan.