Local UK newspaper The Liverpool Echo, noting the London High Court's review of Justice Secretary Jack Straw's decision not to grant a judicial review to Michael Shields, says that the hearing on Thursday December 4 is an opportunity to end what it describes as one of the most "glaring miscarriages of justice in recent years".

Shields, 22, is currently serving a 10-year sentence for the alleged attempted murder of a barman in Bulgaria in 2005, but he has always maintained his innocence. He was transferred back to the UK in 2006. Recently Shields' mother Marie met Gordon Brown's wife in Downing Street to discuss his case.

"Since then (his return to the UK) a fat file of evidence has built up showing the incompetence and inconsistencies in his arrest, the glaring unfairness of his trial, and new witness statements pointing clearly to his innocence," writes Ian Hernon.

"But Mr Straw insists, despite mounting pressure, that he can't consider the new evidence, grant a pardon and allow Michael to rejoin his family before his sentence tariff is completed in 2010," Hernon notes.

The paper condemns Straw's insistence that only the country where the original sentence was pronounced - i.e Bulgaria - is able to grant a pardon.

Hernon concludes that Straw's political reputation is in decline following his perceived misjudgement on the Shields case and his stymied leadership ambitions. "Put bluntly, he appears to be perfectly happy to let an innocent young man languish in a UK prison rather than actively pursue the case," he writes.