The Court of Appeal has upheld judges’ right to jail the most serious offenders in England and Wales for the whole of their lives after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had ruled that whole life terms breached criminals’ human rights.
The ECHR said last year that, while it accepted that whole life orders could be justified, there should nevertheless be some way of having imprisonment reviewed after 25 years.
However, Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas said this week that the ECHR had been wrong to say that British law did not clearly provide whole life inmates with any possibility of release and insisted that such a power clearly existed in exceptional circumstances.
The ruling clears the way for sentencing in a number of high-profile murder cases that had been put on hold pending its outcome, such as the prison terms to be handed out to Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who were convicted in December of killing Fusilier Lee Rigby in London last year.
However, in a blow to British publishers, the ECHR has ruled this month that relatives of dead people who have been defamed in print could take action against them under Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights, which concerns the right to a private and family life.
According to the European court, the reputation of a deceased member of a person’s family may, in certain circumstances, affect that person’s private life and identity, and thus come within the scope of Article 8.
The ruling could now lead to a family member bringing actions against the UK media over articles that make serious allegations about relatives who have recently died, if they believe that their own reputation is damaged by the allegations to the point that it affects that person’s private life and identity.