Judges 'no choice' but to free drug smuggler

Scottish appeal judges warned yesterday that they could be forced to release a drugs smuggler from custody and risk "losing" him, unless the South African authorities agree to his deportation.

Anord Anele Mbulawa has completed a seven-year prison sentence for bringing a kilogramme of heroin, concealed in his stomach, into the UK from Brazil.

However, he has been held for almost three years extra at the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire while the Home Office has tried to deport him, believing he was a South African citizen. The authorities there have refused to accept him.

Lawyers for Mbulawa went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to challenge his continued detention, and the court decided to allow Home Secretary Theresa May a last chance to persuade the South Africans to co-operate in the deportation.

"If such an endeavour is unsuccessful, there may be no alternative to ordering his release from detention. We would add that we have not left out of account the risk that he, if released from detention, may abscond," said Lord Hamilton, the Lord President.

Mbulawa arrived in the UK in April 2005 on what appeared to be a South African passport and under a two-year visa. Within a couple of months, he had been persuaded to travel to Brazil to smuggle heroin back into the UK. He was caught at Heathrow Airport and received a seven-year sentence. He was due to be released from jail in December 2008, after serving half the term, and was transferred to Dungavel to await deportation.

Initially, South Africa issued him with the necessary paperwork, but revoked it at the last moment, not being satisfied he was South African.

The case was continued until 20 September.