- Prince Harry asked for better police protection after being threatened by Al-Qaeda, a new court document shows
- The Duke of Sussex, 40, is fighting for a restoration of the state-funded police protection that was stripped from him when he and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped back from their royal roles in 2020
- Prince Harry’s lawyers describe the appeal as a fight for his life, and he tells PEOPLE, “People would be shocked at what’s being held back”
Prince Harry pursued police protection amid a threat from Al-Qaeda after his official state-funded security was stripped following his decision to step back from his royal role.
The claim was made in the closed session of the two-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London last week, which the Duke of Sussex attended, for a pivotal legal appeal to restore his automatic police protection in the U.K.
A summary of the closed session, seen by PEOPLE, was released on April 17, and the document said Harry “confirmed that he had requested certain protection after a threat was made against him by al Qaida.”
The Duke of Sussex’s lawyer Shaheed Fatima said the terrorist organization called for Prince Harry “to be murdered” after his security was downgraded in 2020. The barrister said the Duke’s security learned Al Qaeda published a message saying his “assassination would please the Muslim community.”
Prince Harry’s security concerns stem in part from his military service and the public attention it brought. He served two tours in Afghanistan with the British Army, experiences he later wrote about in his memoir, Spare. In the book, he discussed his role in combat operations and the lasting impact of his service, which drew attention from extremist groups.
The Duke of Sussex’s legal team has described the security case as a fight for his life. Much of the argument heard on April 9, the second day of the proceedings, focused on the fact that no formal risk assessment (RMB) was completed when Harry’s automatic security was stripped in 2020 when he and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped back from their royal roles.
Instead, the government’s RAVEC committee, responsible for decisions on taxpayer-funded security, gave him a case-by-case arrangement based on current needs.
“One must not forget the human dimension of this case. There is a person who is sitting behind me whose safety, whose security and whose life is at stake,” Harry’s lawyer Fatima said in an emotional summary last Wednesday. “There is a person sitting behind me who’s been told he is getting a special bespoke process when he knows in his experience it is a process that is manifestly inferior in every sense.”
“His presence here and throughout this appeal is a potent demonstration of how much this appeal means to him and his family,” she said.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are raising their children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, in California, and his lawyers have previously said he “does not feel safe” bringing his family to the U.K. following the loss of taxpayer-funded police protection.
The open summary of submissions in closed session seen by PEOPLE underlined that Prince Harry still has not received the make-or-break RMB analysis and the security arrangement in place for him now is “inadequate, inappropriate and ineffective.”
Feeling “exhausted and overwhelmed,” Prince Harry told PEOPLE as he departed court on April 9 that his “worst fears have been confirmed by the whole legal disclosure in this case — and that’s really sad.”
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Shaken by some of the information that emerged, he says in this week’s exclusive PEOPLE cover story, “People would be shocked by what’s being held back.”
He has long held that as ceremonial head of the government, his father, King Charles, has the power to help restore the protection he is fighting for (a principle that the palace denies), with the lack of action exacerbating the distance between them.
A ruling is expected in the coming weeks, and a source close to Harry’s legal team said they were “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome.
The Times reported that the losing side will be hit with a bill of about $1.9 million.
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