Joy at release from Indian jail

Daisy Angus was 22 when she was caught with 10kg of cannabis in a secret compartment in the suitcase she was carrying at Mumbai airport in November 2002.

She was jailed for 10 years by a judge in Mumbai Sessions Court on June 21 last year and had served four and a half years when the High Court in Mumbai overturned the conviction on Thursday.

She was released from Yerawada Central Jail, in Pune, and, speaking from Mumbai, said: "I am over the moon to finally be free. Knowing that I was innocent and that justice would eventually prevail is one of the things I have clung onto during the past five gruelling years."

Ms Angus was on a round-the-world trip having given up her job as a fitness instructor in Bournemouth, Dorset.

She was about to board a plane to Berlin along with Israeli Yoram Kadesh when she was stopped by customs officers. She said that she had been given the suitcase after her own bag broke.

Ms Angus and her family, who live in Bournemouth, have always protested her innocence.

Ms Angus said: "I could not have got through this without the love and support of my family, especially my mum who has stood by me throughout, working tirelessly to get me out and prove my innocence. I just haven't been able to stop hugging her since coming out of jail."

Ms Angus' mother Nadine lodged an appeal in the Indian High Court in October last year with the defence team arguing the suitcase belonged to Mr Kadesh and was in his possession. They argued that Ms Angus had borrowed the bag as hers was torn.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London said: "We can confirm that Daisy was acquitted on all three counts."