Handcuffed: Plane spotters in court

Looking tense and drawn after 19 days held in a Greek jail, 12 British plane spotters accused of spying are marched into court in handcuffs today.

At the front of the group, who are facing a sentence of 20 years if convicted, is 50-year-old Lesley Coppin, a grandmother from Uxbridge. She said this morning that she would rather die than be jailed by the Greek authorities. "I would try to escape and get myself shot because it has got to be a better way of finishing your life than in a Greek prison," she told GMTV in a phone interview before the hearing. Mrs Coppin has been kept in a cell with 17 other women.

The plight of the 12, from the British-based Touchdown Tours plane-spotting society, and two Dutchmen has been raised by Tony Blair. Mrs Coppins's husband Paul, 45, who runs Touchdown Tours, is also being held with the other men in the group. New evidence was said to be being presented today in Kalamata, a southern Greek coastal city where the spotters were originally arrested on 8 November while attending a display at a military air base. They were accused of taking unauthorised photographs and notes at four air bases and held on charges of espionage.

Their defence counsel has changed tactics to make a separate case for each individual rather than a collective one, as was the case so far. Those who did not actually take photographs or notes at air bases may then be declared innocent and allowed to leave. However, lawyer Yannis Zacharias hopes that the magistrate Socrates Gavalas will accept that all 14 were not involved in espionage, but were only indulging their hobby.

They hope the charges will either be dismissed outright, or that the group will be set free and permitted to return to England pending a trial in the distant future.

An official at the office of the Kalamata investigating magistrate said: "There is indeed a good possibility the Britons will be set free pending a future trial.

"I think the dominating thought at present is that they did in fact behave illegally, even perhaps arrogantly and foolishly, but that there was no ill intent.

"Even if they are set free, they will have learned their lesson and so will millions of people around the world realise that they must respect local laws and sensitivities."

British consular authorities, the lawyer and the accused are hoping for a favourable outcome, due mainly to the pressure being exerted by the Government.

Ministers in London and Athens have been worried that the affair could sour relations between the countries.

Europe Minister Peter Hain said the group should have realised that Greece had very strict laws about photographing military aircraft. However, he said that their families were understandably anxious.

He added: "I would hope they would be treated with at least some flexibility, given that this peculiarly British and rather anoraky hobby is normal here."

The others in custody are: Peter Norris, 52 , of Uxbridge; Antoni Adamiak, 37, of London; Andrew Jenkins, 32, of York; Wayne Groves, 38, of Tamworth; Michael Bursell, 47, of Swanland, near Hull; Michael Keane, 57, of Dartford, Kent; Steven Rush, 38; Christopher Wilson, 46; Graham Arnold, 38; and Gary Fagan, 28.