It is a long journey from a position as an internationally recognised academic lawyer and consultant to a crowded prison cell in Lisbon. But it is one travelled by Prof David Lowry, whose defence against fraud charges began at the end of last month. He was arrested in Lisbon in April 1997 when the Portuguese police raided the Lisbon office of the company, Paramount Portugal Consulting.
This was a telemarketing company engaged in the international marketing of shares. It was based in Portugal because of cheap telecommunications charges, but it did not trade in shares there.
An Irish businessman who bought shares in a company, DW Filters, marketed by Paramount, sent a number of queries to the Portuguese authorities when the shares failed to perform.
This sparked Prof Lowry's arrest.
This man, who does not want to be identified for reasons unrelated to the case, made a statement to the Portuguese authorities and has been told he is not required to give evidence in the case.
He is adamant that the Portuguese authorities had already amassed substantial evidence of wrong-doing on behalf of Paramount.
Prof Lowry was not charged for a year after his arrest. Nor was he granted bail. Detention without either charge or bail is legal in Portugal, though contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Portugal is a signatory.
According to European Legal Advice, an organisation which offers legal advice to non-nationals in various jurisdictions, he is being held in a small cell with 13 other prisoners and is reportedly in poor health as a result of throat tumours and high blood pressure.
In April 1998, a full year after his arrest, Prof Lowry was charged with "aggravated fraud, criminal association, forgery and unauthorised creation of a database."
He denied all charges and has filed seven appeals against them. His case is also being taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by European Legal Advice, where he is claiming substantial damages for human rights violations.
Colleagues and friends have rallied to his defence, among them Prof William Twining, research professor of law at University College, London, who is one of Britain's leading experts in the law of evidence.
He has visited Prof Lowry in Lisbon and concluded that "a former student and close colleague appeared to be the victim of a very serious potential miscarriage of justice".
He continued: "The translation that I have seen of parts of the prosecution's formal `accusation' appears to consist almost entirely of allegations and assertions rather than evidence, so that it is virtually impossible to comment in detail on the evidentiary aspects, if indeed there is any specific evidence supporting the charges.
"The investigators had almost nothing to go on except a complaint from a dissatisfied client and mere suspicion. It would not be surprising if they were completely out of their depth.
"Instead of involving appropriate expertise, from the outset the investigation appears to have been dilatory, amateurish, inefficient, radically incomplete, secret and unfair.
"Lowry offered full co-operation, but his attempts to explain the business and particular transactions seem to have gone unheeded.".
The case opened on September 21st and has continued intermittently since, with one or two half days a week devoted to it.
The prosecution has ended its case and the defence began on November 23rd, 18 months after the professor's initial detention.
Among the witnesses for the defence are Mr Delano Findlay, former attorney for the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Gene Glenn, a former FBI telemarketing and fraud specialist, and Mr Page J. Thibodeaux, the auditor in the Maxwell case, now working for Deloitte and Touche.
Whatever the outcome of the trial, it illustrates the need for greater harmonisation of human rights protections and legal procedures in a situation where work and commerce increasingly takes people beyond their national borders.