Andrew Stow was sentenced to 12 months

Andrew, 36, and Graham, 41, set off from Wales in their fishing boat with the dream of setting up a diving school in Portugal.

They had stopped off at the Canary Islands off the Portuguese coast before docking at the port of Faro.

They said they intended to set up a business aimed at the lucrative tourist market.

Portuguese police found the �3m of hahish, weghing 12,000kg, on the bottom of the sea bed as the brothers carried out repairs to their boat whilst in dock.

The maximum sentence in Portugal for drug trafficking is 20 years.

Freedom capaign

They were arrested by Portugese police officers, who alleged the brothers had dragged the cannabis across the sea bed using trawler nets.

Graham Stow helped smuggle the cannabis

Their father, 78-year-old Dilwyn Stow, lead a lengthy campaign to have his two sons freed.

He spent thousands battling to prove their innocence and he admitted he had reached the stage of possibly having to sell his house to cover their legal fees.

In June, he flew out to Faro, where Andrew and Graham appeared in court - only to hear that the verdict would not be announced for two months.

Trial defence

Stephen Jakobi of Fair Trials Abroad described the length of time the men waited for their trial as "quite extraordinary".

He said: "It is quite against the European Convention of Human Rights, for a fairly simple trial.

"We have been campaigning for a Euro Bail system for several years, we thought we had converted Jack Straw (former Home Secretary) a couple of years ago, but unfortunately, Europe has done nothing about this.

"I think it is a total scandal. There are thousands of people at any one time sitting in jails who should not be there."