A CONVICTED arms dealer's hopes of being released from an Indian jail have been dashed after an appeal was rejected.

Peter Bleach, who has been in a Calcutta jail for more than six years for his part in an arms drop in West Bengal, was pinning his hopes on a hearing yesterday.

But the Foreign Office confirmed that the appeal on behalf of Bleach, who lived in Fylingthorpe, near Whitby, North Yorkshire, had been rejected by the Indian government. The decision was made despite earlier pleas for clemency by former Home Secretary Jack Straw and ex-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

Four Russians and a Latvian, who were jailed with Bleach for their part in the same operation, have already been released following the intervention of their own governments.

Bleach's 80-year-old mother, Oceana, who lives in Brompton-by-Sawdon, near Scarborough, condemned the ruling yesterday.

She said: "My son has not been released purely because he is British. The others have been released and they are not from Britain."

The Indian Home Affairs Minister is understood to have rejected the pleas because releasing Bleach could hinder the country's case against the alleged organiser of the arms drop.