A mother has made an emotional plea for support as she desperately tries to get her ex soldier partner home in time for their baby’s first Christmas.
Billy Irving, from Connel near Oban, has been trapped in India for the last two years.
Mr Irving was working along with five other former British soldiers as anti piracy security guards on a US-owned ship when they were arrested in October 2013 on illegal weapons charges.
After a period in a squalid Indian prison, the men were told the case against them was quashed. But Indian prosecutors applied for a retrial, which is now under way, and the men are unable to leave the country.
Yvonne Machugh has campaigned relentlessly to the UK Government to have them help bring her fiance home.
A petition she started in 2013 has been signed by 210,632 people, and now she is calling on more people to support it to put pressure on the government.
Miss Machugh said: “I visited Billy in India and earlier this year, when it looked like this would finally all be over, we had a son together. Our son is nine months old now and Billy still isn’t home. I can’t bear to celebrate our baby boy’s first Christmas without his dad.
“The British Government is their only hope. These boys are ex-soldiers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. They devoted their lives to their country and now they need our countries help.
“Please sign my petition calling on the UK Government to step up and help us to bring these boys home to their families before Christmas.”
The petition on the change.org website is titled, “Petitioning British Foreign Secretary, Help Bring the six British ex-soldiers home for Christmas”.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are in close contact with all six men and continue to provide support to them and their families. Ministers raised this case more than 20 times since November 2013, urging for it to be resolved as soon as possible. We will continue to press at the highest levels, however we cannot interfere in an ongoing legal process in another country.”
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