The prison hall houses 279 inmates

Counsel for the executive warned the judge that the decision could lead to other remand prisoners asking to be taken out of the jail's C hall.

Napier, who faces charges of assault, robbery, abduction and attempting to pervert the course of justice, alleged that conditions were in contravention of Article Three of the European Convention on Human Rights.

His counsel will ultimately want the court to declare that his human rights have been breached in a judicial review and demand compensation of �5,000.

The Scottish Executive was expected to consider making an appeal against the decision which could delay moves by any other prisoners seeking a transfer out of the hall.

Napier has been detained at Barlinnie since 18 May and solicitors acting for him wrote to the governor alleging that conditions were degrading.

He had earlier been arrested after failing to appear at the High Court on robbery, assault and abduction charges.

'Human dignity'

Alongside the sharing of cells and facilities, Napier said he was only being allowed out of his cell for about an hour a day.

He alleged that he found the conditions depressing and disgusting and they led to "diminishment of his human dignity".

Napier also said he has suffered distress and anxiety and this has resulted in the worsening of his skin condition, eczema.

The Scottish Executive opposed Napier's move for a transfer out of the remand wing at Barlinnie and said it denied that he has been held in conditions breaching the human rights convention.

Counsel Alan Summers said: "We are talking about effectively evacuating the whole of the remand wing in a system already stretched.

"The consequences of granting him an order would have obvious ramifications for the proper management of Her Majesty's prisons in Scotland."

The executive says conditons are improving

Mr Summers said the prison system would not be in a position to handle dispersal of the 279 inmates in 179 cells in the hall.

He stressed that it was accepted that slopping out had to be replaced in a modern prison system but the prison service was seeking to resolve the issue.

However, Simon Collins, for Napier, said the problems at the remand wing at Barlinnie were well known.

A report by architect Professor Thomas Markus of Strathclyde University had detailed inadequacies with living space, lighting and sanitation in the cell inhabited by Napier.

Mr Collins told the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the amount of cell space allocated to an inmate was apparently half that available to a prisoner at Pentonville jail in 1841.

A report by a European committee in 1994 had told the government that conditions at the Glasgow jail were unacceptable.

"Mr Napier is currently being detained in conditions that were described as inhumane and degrading seven years ago," said Mr Collins, who added that the service had had ample time to improve conditions.