- Prince Harry has arrived at court in central London for the second day of his appeal over the decision to deny him automatic security when he is in the U.K.
- On day one, the Duke of Sussex’s lawyer claimed that he was “singled out” for “inferior treatment” after the U.K. government’s security committee imposed a “bespoke” arrangement on him
- Harry’s long-running legal battle has contributed to ongoing tensions with his father, King Charles
Prince Harry is in court for a second day of submissions in his battle over his security.
Harry, 40, is in London for the appeal over the decision to deny him automatic security when he is in the U.K.
On Tuesday, April 8, his lawyers began their appeal saying that he had been “singled out” for “unjustified and inferior treatment” when the decision was made in February 2020 soon after he and wife Meghan Markle stepped back from royal duties.
The Duke of Sussex arrived at London’s Royal Courts of Justice at around 10.10 a.m. local time on April 9 for the second day of the hearing. He waved to onlookers, TV crews and photographers before entering via a side entrance.
The case, taking place in Court 73, is set to end its public element on April 9, with much of the day’s hearing taking place in private. His lawyer, barrister Shadeed Fatima KC, hinted about some of the detail that might be considered in the private session. The closed “session deals with [Harry’s] comparison with others,” she said on the first day of the hearing.
Harry’s long-running legal battle has contributed to ongoing tensions with his father, King Charles, who’s top staff sit on the official U.K. government body (RAVEC) that decides who gets state-funded security.
In their written arguments, the Duke of Sussex’s lawyers laid out some of the background, saying Harry and his wife Meghan, 43, “felt forced to step back from the role of full time official working members of the Royal Family as they considered they were not being protected by the institution.”
The lawyers outlined how Harry and Meghan had “wished to continue their duties in support of the late Queen [Elizabeth] as privately funded members of the Royal Family.”
In the early submissions on April 8, Harry’s leading lawyer claimed RAVEC did not carry out expert assessments of any threat to the prince.
RAVEC, she says, did not use the specialist body, the Risk Management Board (RMB), to undertake a new report on the security risk faced by Harry as part of its deliberations. She said, therefore, that RAVEC “diverted” from its terms of reference in that. The RMB assessment, Fatima added, “is a key and crucial feature” of RAVEC process.
Fatima reiterated RAVEC did not have “the expert analysis” that it needed in order to consider whether or not Prince Harry should be treated in the same way to those in what she called “the Other VIP Category” — she argued that Harry’s position is “analogous” to those in that category.
The RAVEC committee, she pointed out, came up with a unique arrangement for Harry and added that his “bespoke” arrangement is “not applied for anyone else.”
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Harry, she said, “does not accept that bespoke means better.” And she added, “In his submission he has been singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment. Not only does this ‘bespoke’ process not involve an RMB — it also involves RAVEC considering the reason why [Harry] is attending a particular event: even though that is plainly irrelevant to the question of security.”
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