FREED charity worker Ian Stillman was celebrating with his family last night, his two-year ordeal in a cramped Indian jail finally at an end.

The deaf, one-legged diabetic was released amid ecstatic scenes outside the prison in Simla, north of Delhi, after finally being granted mercy on health grounds.

But while the 52-year-old and his family celebrated, the misery was continuing for convicted gun-runner Peter Bleach, who is seriously-ill and has served almost seven years in a Calcutta jail.

Both men have been the subject of long-running campaigns for their freedom, co-ordinated by friends and relatives at home in North Yorkshire.

Mr Stillman, whose parents Roy and Monica live in Tadcaster Road, York, was given a ten-year sentence for possession of cannabis in a case the campaign group Fair Trials Abroad labelled the "worst miscarriage of justice" it had ever dealt with.

About 20kgs of the drug were found in a taxi he was using and despite his denials, he was convicted. A committed Christian, he had worked in India for 25 years, and founded a charity that provides education and training for deaf people.

He spent much of his time in jail in a cell measuring 12.5ft by 22ft, shared with 30 prisoners.

Leave to appeal was refused but Foreign Secretary Jack Straw intervened on his behalf.

Despite his new-found freedom, his conviction still stands and the Indian authorities want him to leave their country.

He plans to spend several days resting with his Indian wife, Sue, daughter Anita, 20 and son Lemmie, 23, before flying to the UK at the end of the week. Lemmie said: "It is a strange feeling but it's fantastic that he's out."

In Calcutta, Peter Bleach, an old boy of St Peter's School in York, heard of Ian's release on the radio in his cell.

Now suffering from TB, he is refusing medication as a protest against his incarceration for his role in an arms drop to West Bengal rebels.

His mother, Oceana, of Brompton-by-Sawdon, near Scarborough, said: "We are still hoping to hear good news but we can't really expect Mr Stillman's release to give any added impetus to the case."