Peter Bleach, a British arms smuggler who has spent almost a decade in an Indian prison, is due to be released, it was announced today.

Lal Krishna Advani, the Indian Deputy Prime Minister, made the announcement during an official visit to the country by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary.

Bleach, 52, from Yorkshire, was arrested in December 1995 with five Latvian aircrew on charges relating to an illegal arms drop in India. All six were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2000.

Bleach's Latvian co-defendants were granted remission in July 2000 however, and British consul staff have been lobbying for similar terms for the Briton, who is currently in a jail in Calcutta.

Bleach's elderly mother, Oceana, said she was thrilled to hear the news. She last saw her son more than eight years ago and has not heard from him since December.

Speaking from her home in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, she said: "I am very thrilled. I hope and pray that it will come to fruition.

"That was my biggest wish for this year that my son would be coming back. He has never lost his spirit that he is fighting for his freedom and for his justice as well.

"He should have been freed with the Russians of course. There was substantial discrimination, I think," she added.

She said she would not be going to India to meet him because she was too ill.

Mr Advani said after a meeting with Mr Blunkett at the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi: "There has been demand from Britain that Mr Peter Bleach be released. It is being actively considered.

"I have mentioned to Mr Blunkett that that might be possible. We have had discussions with the Law Ministry who indicated that it would be possible."

Bleach's case has been raised previously with the Indian Government by Tony Blair and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary.

Bleach is believed to be suffering from tuberculosis and British officials are concerned for his deteriorating health. Asked when Mr Bleach would be released, Mr Advani said: "We will finalise it soon."

Mr Blunkett said: "In Britain I normally have a reputation of keeping people in jail. I'm very pleased that the minister has agreed to let someone out, which will improve my reputation with the liberal media tremendously at home."

Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, the pressure group, welcomed the news. "We are extremely relieved that Peter will soon be reunited with his family and their long ordeal has come to an end," he said.

Bleach and the five Latvians were arrested on charges that they parachuted crates of assault rifles, anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers and ammunition into Purulia village in West Bengal.

The Indian police said the arms cache was for a revolutionary group known as Anand Marg, the Path of Bliss.

In February 2000, a Calcutta civil court sentenced Bleach and the Latvians to life imprisonment on charges of waging war against India.

The five others were pardoned however, after the Russian Government intervened, saying there was little evidence against them and the sentences were too harsh.

In July last year, Mr Bleach was refused a pardon for a second time in three years. He argued that the Indian Government had discriminated against him when it freed the Latvians. Mr Bleach's first petition was dismissed in 2001.

Mr Jakobi said: "This case does represent an eventual triumph for the constant drip method of FCO diplomacy whereby the case in question is raised by visiting ministers and consular services until something happens."

He warned however that such procedures were lengthy and there were others in prisons abroad who had suffered miscarriages of justice but whose cases were not progressing. He called for an internal review by the Foreign Office on the effectiveness of their methods.