MR Ernest Saunders, the former Guinness chairman, jailed for theft and false accounting after the company's 1986 takeover of Distillers, yesterday asked the European Court of Human Rights to rule that he was denied a fair trial.

Mr Saunders maintains that, the prosecution's use of answers given under compulsion to Department of Trade and Industry inspectors breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Michael Beloff QC, for Mr Saunders, said this had denied him protection against self incrimination.

Mr Sydney Kentridge QC, for the government, said Mr Saunders had been treated with "scrupulous fairness".