CAMPAIGNERS for the return home of an Irish mother serving an eightyear jail sentence in Ecuador for drug smuggling are hopeful of advancing her cause in the coming weeks.

Roisin Zoe Savage (30) was given the lengthy sentence in 2003 when two-and-a-half kilograms of cocaine were discovered in her luggage at Quito airport as she boarded a flight to London.

Members of her family in Ireland and Dublin North West TD Pat Carey have been waging a campaign to have Savage repatriated for the past few years, and controversial lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano has also recently offered his services to have her returned home.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, Carey explained, "Roisin wrote to me in 2004 and I had not heard from her for years as she used to go to the school where I worked.

"She was a lovely bubbly child who played football and was involved in school pantomimes. Her parents were heavily involved in the school as well.

"I had lost contact with her until one day, out of the blue, I got her letter sent from a prison in Ecuador so I just took it from there."

After years of dealing with the South American authorities, Carey made a breakthrough last November when the Ecuadorian government signed the Strasbourg Agreement for the expatriation of prisoners.

"So far they have not implemented the agreement but officials from four EU countries met justice officials in Quito last month so hopefully they will start to act now, " he said. "As it stands now, the Ecuadorian government have to file papers with the Irish Department of Justice before the repatriation process can begin. I expect to hear some news about this in the coming weeks."

Savage, who is a freelance journalist, has consistently maintained that the cocaine was planted in the lining of her bag by a friend, and says she is desperate to get home to her husband and two children who live in London.

The volatile political situation in Ecuador has made her return to Ireland even more difficult and Carey outlined that the Supreme Court in Quito has only sat once in the last two years, hindering the progress of her campaign.

In a recent new development in the Dublin woman's case, controversial Italian lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano, who has worked on the cases of John Gilligan and Saddam Hussein, has offered to help Savage.

An application for a presidential pardon, which would allow Savage return home, has been filed and Di Stefano is now awaiting a response from the Ecuadorian president.

"I am hoping to go out to Ecuador on 11 September where I will visit Roisin, " he said. "I hope that she will be given clemency for humanitarian reasons.

"No Ecuadorian president has ever been requested in the past 25 years to make a pardon or remission of sentence. I have asked the president to apply compassion. I am cautiously confident he will.

"It is irrelevant that she has been found guilty as she should be released on humanitarian grounds. I am sorry that the Irish government has not done more for her. I think that they, like all governments, do not do enough for their prisoners who are in prisons abroad."

However, Carey believes that even though there is no Irish embassy in Ecuador, the ambassador in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has worked tirelessly on the Savage case.

He added: "She has been unfortunate because of the volatility of the political situation out there, and her first solicitor died and the second one disappeared without trace but thankfully the present one is doing a good job."

Grainne Prior, of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas which has worked closely on the case, said, "We would urge the Ecuadorian authorities to implement the Strasbourg agreement and we urge that the Irish government will put pressure on them to do so. Even if this only helps one person it is worthwhile."

The ordeal of Savage's incarceration has been made somewhat easier by two Irish missionary nuns who visit her every week. "Presentation nuns Sr Catherine Codd and Sr Eileen Quirke take turns in visiting Roisin in prison and they are also involved in the campaign to get her home, " said Carey.

"Roisin has got a lot of help and support from the Presentation sisters and she was in good form when I spoke with her on the phone the other night."

An international organisation called Fair Trials Abroad has taken on the Savage case and Carey believes that this is an indication of their belief that there has been a grave miscarriage of justice.

Fair Trials Abroad (FTA) work to ensure that EU citizens accused of a crime in a country other than their own receive a just and fair trial. As Carey continues his fight to have Savage repatriated, President Palacio, a surgeon with a perfect command of the English language, is expected to rule on Di Stefano's application shortly.