Since then he has been largely confined to hospital, where he has been treated for diabetes.Millar’s lawyers, who had been briefed by the British High Commission in Lagos, said the prosecution had failed to prove the case against him beyond reasonable doubt.Executions of Britons are rare in Africa. In 1960 Peter Poole was hanged by the colonial administration in Kenya for shooting an African he caught flogging his dog.Under Nigerian law, the state governor of Lagos has the power to commute the death sentence. British diplomats in Nigeria said that they would be taking further legal advice.A spokesman for the British High Commission said yesterday: “We are resolutely opposed to the use of the death penalty and our prime concern is to avoid the execution of British nationals.”. Two-thirds of the European Union’s citizens believe that the military invasion of Iraq was not justified and think that the United States should pay for the country’s reconstruction, according to an opinion poll published yesterday. “It has been indicated that he will lodge an appeal, although it may not be [heard] until February 2004,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.Murder carries a mandatory death penalty in Nigeria but no death sentence has been carried out under common law since military rule ended in 1999.

He had pleaded not guilty.The case against Millar, originally from Scotland but a long-term resident of Nigeria, was largely circumstantial, Justice Grace Onyeabor admitted during the trial at Lagos High Court.But after hearing from medical experts and the couple’s domestic workers, she judged the evidence to be “cogent and compelling” and sentenced the British businessman to hang.Millar was sent to the maximum security Kirkiri Prison, from where British officials said he would be launching an appeal. It has not yet been returned despite an order of the High Court.The Zimbabwe government claimed yesterday that the newspaper’s decision to re-open on Saturday was still illegal. Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of Information and Publicity in the President’s Office, told state media: “The law is clear, the ANZ are not registered.” No mass media owner could operate without a licence, he said.Zimbabwe’s harsh media law has seen the arrests of about 40 journalists and the expulsion of all foreign correspondents in the country since its enactment last year.. A British businessman sentenced to hang by a Nigerian court for murdering his Australian girlfriend is to appeal against his sentence, the Foreign Office has confirmed. The court found that the commission had exhibited bias against the papers and also ruled the commission was “improperly constituted.” Most of the newspaper’s equipment, including 129 computers, was seized by the police when it was originally shut last month. One of the detainees, Tulepi Nkomo, is a niece of Sam Nkomo, the chief executive of Associated Newspapers Zimbabwe (ANZ). She spent two days in jail despite not being involved with the newspaper.

The police arrested her after they failed to find Mr Nkomo.The second hostage, a board member and former judge Washington Sansole, was arrested on Sunday, barely 24 hours after the police had raided Mr Nkomo’s home. Yesterday morning Mr Nkomo and the ANZ directors Stuart Mattinson, Rachel Kupara and Brian Mutsau handed themselves in at Harare central police station.Mr Sansole was released when a court in Bulawayo ordered his release, while Tulepi Nkomo was set free after paying a fine. But Ms Moyo said that the real reason for their release was the surrender of the four directors..The charges against the ANZ directors follow a raid against The Daily News on Saturday in which 18 journalists were arrested, barely 24 hours after a court had ordered the paper to be reopened.President Mugabe’s government shut down The Daily News and its sister Sunday publication on 12 September, after the state-run media commission refused them a licence to publish.The publishers appealed to the country’s Administrative Court, which handles disputes over government decisions. He said he would also sue the Mugabe regime for compensation to cover losses while the newspaper remained shut.The police yesterday released two people they had detained at the weekend and held as hostages for surrender of the wanted directors. The paper’s chairman, Strive Masiyiwa, who is based in Johannesburg, vowed to fight the Zimbabwe government until his newspaper was allowed to publish freely. Fallujah is located about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad..