A millionaire hunger striker is out of immediate danger six months after refusing to eat in protest at his murder conviction, his lawyer said today.
Kevin Sweeney (44), a businessman, born in Renfrewshire, Scotland, is in a Dutch jail campaigning to have a conviction for murdering his wife overturned.
His health is so poor that his organs have started shutting down, leading to kidney failure, and he is going blind, his lawyer said.
Mr Sabine Zanker of British lobby group Fair Trials Abroad, said Sweeney has begun to take sugar again and is hopeful he will give up the strike.
Sweeney has refused medical help and has signed a waiver absolving the Dutch prison system of responsibility. Ms Zanker said she is preparing a letter to the Ministry of Justice in Holland and hopes to have a solution in the next few days.
Sweeney began his hunger strike as a protest against legal blocks on an appeal after being convicted of the murder of his third wife, Ms Suzanne Davies (35), in a house blaze in 1995.
Her naked body was found curled up inside a wardrobe in the bedroom of their home in Steensel in the south of The Netherlands.
Prosecutors claim Sweeney started the fire to cash in on his wife's £635,000 sterling insurance. He was cleared of murder in 1996 but Dutch law allows prosecutors a second chance with fresh evidence.
Following one of the longest-running criminal cases in Dutch legal history, he was re-tried and convicted in February 2001. He lost an appeal and was refused leave to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights until he exhausts the Dutch legal system.
He has been refusing food since July last year, except for one 10-day break in his fast, and is surviving on water and weak tea with sugar. He alleges his correspondence has been intercepted and destroyed.
Ms Zanker believes he stands an "excellent" chance of obtaining a Supreme Court review as there is new scientific evidence undermines the prosecution account of how the fire started.
PA