PRO-DEMOCRACY campaigner James Mawdsley was due to taste freedom this Friday after 415 days in solitary confinement in a Burmese prison.

The 27-year-old human rights activist, jailed for 17 years for handing out pro-democracy literature in August last year, is to be handed to British vice-consul Karen Williams at the gates of Kentung Prison in remote north-east Burma.

He will then be flown to the Burmese capital Rangoon where he is expected to be reunited with his mother, Diana, before flying home to Britain, via Bangkok in neighbouring Thailand.

Mrs Mawdsley, a nurse from Brancepeth, near Durham, extended her stay in Burma after visiting James last week in prison, where he was beaten by guards last month after protesting at being held in solitary confinement. The outcry over his beating brought increased pressure on the Burmese authorities by the Foreign Office and the United Nations, and led to Monday's announcement by the country's ambassador in Britain, Dr Kyaw Win, that James was to be deported.

Speaking to the Advertiser from the British Embassy Club in Rangoon, on Wednesday evening Burmese time, after hearing news of Friday's release, Mrs Mawdsley said: "I'm still pinching myself that it's all happening.

"Until Monday night I was becoming really depressed about the whole thing. Then I was knocked up and told late at night by the vice-consul that he is to be released. It was wonderful, joyous news, but it's been a case since then of waiting to hear how the release will happen.

"We've just been told and now we're going to ask permission if I can go up to Kentung to the prison. If they don't give permission there's no way I'll go.

"It's more likely that I'll have to wait to see him at the airport. The feeling is that they will want him straight out of the country so I've got my bags packed ready to fly with him on Friday if necessary," added Mrs Mawdsley.

James' sister Dr Emma Mawdsley, a geography lecturer and researcher at Durham University, said: "We understand they'll want to clear him away from Burma pretty quickly. What happens then I really don't know.

"I'm sure James will want to still highlight the suffering in Burma, but maybe he will be able to do it from platforms in this country."

Dr Mawdsley thanked everyone for their messages of support.

James is expected to stay with his father David, a London-based property manager, on his return to Britain, before visiting his mother in Brancepeth