The Duke of Sussex arrived on Tuesday before a London court to challenge the British government’s decision to demote its level of security funded by taxpayers while he visits the United Kingdom.
After Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced that they have dismissed his functions as members of the royal family in 2020, the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) decided that the couple would no longer receive the “same degree” of protection when he is in the country.
Although he no longer uses the HRH title, Harry is still a member of the British royal family and fifth in accordance with the throne.
In a rare visit to the United Kingdom since his move to California, Harry, the youngest son of King Charles, arrived at the London Court of Appeal for a two-day hearing for the last developments of his battle with the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry responsible for the Committee. Tuesday’s hearing is a previous decision from the British High Court, confirming Ravec’s decision as a legal.
By entering the court, the Duke took place several rows behind his lawyer, where he listened to arguments while occasionally taking a sip of water from a bottle in front of him. He should not testify during the two -day hearing, and a written decision is expected on a later date.
The Duke’s lawyers told the hearing on Tuesday that Harry had been “chosen for various unjustified and lower treatments” by the Committee. Shaheed Fatima KC argued that Ravec did not follow his own policy when he decided to modify his level of security arrangements in a case by case.
It argued that an assessment of the risk council, or RMB, was not carried out for the Duke before Ravec made his decision of February 2020 and that “he did not apply his own mandate to this decision -making process”. She said decisions should have included an expert analysis obtained through RMB assessments, but instead, he opted for “a different and supposedly tailor-made process”.
In submissions written at the Court, Fatima said that the Duke “and his wife felt compelled to step back from the role of full -time members of the royal family because they considered that they were not protected by the institution, but they wanted to continue their functions in support of the end of the Queen as private members of the royal family”, according to the Bringuine de Pa Media news agency.
James Eadie KC, lawyer for the Ministry of the Interior, said on Tuesday afternoon of the three judges of the Court of Appeal that “it was important to underline that the decision was not that personal security of the type previously provided before would in no case be provided”.
He continued: “But rather that it was simply that this security would not be provided on the same basis as before because of his change of status and because he was now going to live abroad during the majority of his time.”
He stressed that the decision led to tailor -made arrangements for the Duke, which suited the Royal better.
“We are in territory in which there are no good or bad answers. There are questions of judgment against necessarily wide criteria and on a soft edge … in which the expertise in the security of the persons involved is probably critical,” he said in court.
EADIE must continue to present the position of the British government on Wednesday morning. Part of the legal proceedings on Wednesday will be held in private, without the journalists in the room, so that the sensitive security provisions for members of the royal family and other VIPs can be discussed.
Harry has often expressed his fears about the security of his family and criticized the press intrusion that he blamed for the death of his mother, Diana, who died in a car accident in 1997 when she was chased by paparazzi in Paris.
During the complete hearing of Harry’s complaint at the end of 2023, the Duke told court in a statement that the United Kingdom is “at the heart of my children’s inheritance”, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, and that he wants them to “feel at home” in the United Kingdom as much as in the United States.
“I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to put myself in unnecessary danger,” said his press release.
Last year, Harry’s legal action against the Ministry of the Interior did not succeed and the court initially refused to appeal. However, the Court of Appeal agreed in June 2024 to hear the Duke’s affair following a direct request from Harry lawyers.
This legal affair was one of the many Harry undertook in the United Kingdom. In January, Harry said he had won a “monumental victory” by adjusting his case to illegal information collection claims by the British newspaper group from Rupert Murdoch.
The Duke had continued the newspapers of the group of news (NGN) – British tabloid publisher The Sun and the now closed news in the world – claiming that journalists and private investigators working for publications had targeted him and his family, between 1996 and 2011.
Tuesday’s call comes shortly after the prince left the boss of Sentabele, a charity that he co -founded in honor of his mother to help young people who suffer from HIV and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana. Sophie Chandauka, the chair of the charity, accused Harry of intimidation and misogyny. Harry said he had resigned “in shock” and “the broken heart”. The Watchdog of British charitable organizations announced last week that it had opened a case of regulatory compliance.
Harry’s father, King Charles, will not be in the United Kingdom during the hearing on two-day security arrangements. Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, are visiting state in Italy, where they received a complete ceremonial reception on Tuesday morning, meeting President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace before seeing a flypast by the Frecce Tricolori arrows and the red arrows.
This story has been updated with developments.
Max Foster of CNN contributed the reports.
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