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LONDON (AP) - Ailing train-robber Ronnie Biggs, back in a British jail after three decades on the run, will appeal his 30-year prison sentence, his spokeswoman said Saturday.
Judy Totton said the appeal will take several months to prepare and will involve ``careful and detailed research into many matters, some of which occurred over 36 years ago and some of which occurred in foreign jurisdictions.''
Biggs was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the 1963 holdup of a mail train - a heist dubbed the ``Great Train Robbery.'' He escaped from prison in 1965, fled abroad and eventually settled in Brazil.
Biggs, 71, was flown to Britain last week aboard a jet chartered by a tabloid newspaper after deciding to return to his homeland and give himself up. He was immediately arrested and, after a brief court appearance, jailed at Belmarsh prison in southeast London to serve out the remainder of his sentence.
Three strokes have left Biggs frail and barely able to speak. His lawyers said last week they would use his ill health as part of their appeal.
``All he seeks is a fair and balanced hearing at which all relevant issues can be addressed,'' said solicitor Jane Wearing.
Biggs was part of a 15-member gang that switched signals on the Glasgow-to-London rail line on Aug. 8, 1963, tricking a Royal Mail train into stopping in the pre-dawn darkness.
The robbers bagged 125 sacks of mail stuffed with bank notes. Their take was 2.6 million pounds - worth $7.3 million at the time, or nearly $50 million today.
Most of the gang was caught, served out jail sentences and went on to lead obscure lives. But Biggs became something of a folk hero with his audacious escape from Wandsworth Prison - he scaled a 25-foot wall on a rope ladder and jumped into a waiting van - and his subsequent life on the lam.
He fled to France, then to Australia and Panama, and finally, in 1970, to Rio de Janeiro.
Most of Biggs' share of the loot from the robbery was spent on his escape, plastic surgery to change his appearance and years of high life in Rio. It was widely speculated that he was nearly broke, and was giving himself up at last to get free medical care.
-Underground Tiger-
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