Biggs wins permission to challenge parole decision

LONDON (Reuters) - "Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs has been granted permission to appeal against the government's decision not to release him from jail on parole, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Justice Secretary Jack Straw rejected the Parole Board's recommendation to allow Biggs, 79, to be released because he was "wholly unrepentant."

"I am very pleased and proud to confirm that the High Court of Justice have granted us leave and permission to challenge the decision of Jack Straw refusing to accept the decision of the parole Board to release Ronnie Biggs," his lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano said in a statement.

It comes a day after Biggs' legal team wrote to Straw asking for him to be released on compassionate grounds. Biggs was taken to hospital this week suffering from severe pneumonia and his family say he is seriously ill.

Along with 11 other gang members, Biggs robbed a Glasgow-to-London mail train in 1963 and stole 2.6 million pounds -- about 30 million pounds in today's money. The crime became known as "The Great Train Robbery."

He was caught and sentenced the following year but escaped from prison after just 15 months.

He used his share of the loot to pay for plastic surgery and papers for a passage to Australia where he returned to his old job of carpenter and decorator. He later fled to Brazil via Panama and Venezuela.

He surrendered to police in 2001 after 36 years on the run and is now serving the rest of his sentence at Norwich prison in eastern England.

Biggs has now served 10 years of his 30-year sentence.

His son Michael, 34, said his father had always expressed sorrow for his crimes and was suffering from a fractured hip, spine and pelvis, and was unable to walk, talk, drink or eat properly.

(Reporting by Michael Holden)