A petition was yesterday sent to the kings of Spain and Morocco in a bid to help secure the release of a "patently innocent" Isle of Wight man from a Spanish jail.

John Packwood, 41, from Cowes, has been in prison for four months following his arrest in Malaga at the request of Morocco.

The north Africans issued an international arrest warrant, saying a boat he delivered with three others to Morocco from Southampton in 1997 was found to contain tonnes of drugs, weeks after the initial search and their return to Britain.

Stephen Jakobi of Fair Trials Abroad has now written to the kings of Spain and Morocco to ask officials to "discuss and resolve" the case during Friday's Moroccan state visit to Madrid.

Mr Jakobi said in his letter that Mr Packwood was "patently innocent of the crime he stands accused of".

The director of FTA said legal advice showed the extradition treaty between Spain and Morocco breached European law because it specifically exempted non-Spanish citizens.

Mr Jakobi is backed in his campaign by the European Parliament, whose members have expressed "consternation" at the arrest in October.

Mr Packwood and three other men, were delivering a boat when engine failure and storms forced them to shelter in the holiday resort of Agadir in Morocco.

The boat was searched and cleared and Mr Packwood flew back to the UK with the others - Henry Stableford, Oliver Bennet, and Colin Bocquillon, all from the Isle of Wight.

Ten weeks later, after several tonnes of cocaine were allegedly found on the vessel during a second search, Interpol interviewed the crew but took no action.

But unknown to the men, international arrest warrants were then issued and

Mr Packwood was arrested in Malaga more than seven years after the original search.

The other three yachtsman are all facing arrest under similar Moroccan warrants.