Prince Harry’s “life is at stake”, his lawyer warned as the royal’s bid to restore his UK police protection came to a close Wednesday in a high-profile London court case.
The 40-year-old prince has been fighting to get his security in Britain brought back to the same high level it was before he and his wife Meghan split from the royal family in 2020 and dramatically moved to live in self-imposed exile in the United States.
Harry is no longer considered a working royal and the government decided several years ago he would not receive the “same degree” of publicly funded protection as before.
But with Harry sitting behind her on the second and final day of the challenge in the Court of Appeal, the prince’s lawyer Shaheed Fatima said the judges “must not forget the human dimension to this case”.
“There is a person sitting behind me whose safety, whose security and whose life is at stake,” she said in her concluding statement.
“There is a person sitting behind me who has been told that he is getting a special, bespoke process when he knows, and has experienced, the process has been manifestly inferior in every respect.”
Harry made a rare visit to the UK for the case and his lawyer said the prince’s presence “is a potent illustration… of how much this appeal means to him and his family”.
Earlier, lawyers for the UK government defended the interior ministry’s decision to cut back Harry’s police protection in the UK after he stepped back from royal life.
Lawyer James Eadie, representing the interior ministry, defended the “bespoke” approach adopted in Harry’s case by a committee that deals with the protection of royals and public figures.
He said the committee’s chair felt this was a “flexible and tailored approach better matched to revised circumstances”.
In a dark suit and red striped tie, Harry listened intently to proceedings, occasionally conferring with his lawyer.
Much of Wednesday’s hearing was held behind closed doors due to the sensitive nature of discussing the security and threats around King Charles III’s youngest son.
The prince took legal action against the interior ministry in 2021, and after his initial case was rejected last year, he brought a challenge before the Court of Appeal.
Harry’s lawyer told the court on Tuesday that the prince had been “singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment”.
In a written submission, his lawyers highlighted threats made against the prince.
“Al-Qaeda recently called for to be murdered,” and he and Meghan were “involved in a dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi in New York City” in May 2023, the submission said, without providing full details.
Harry has long been haunted by the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997 as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers.
At one point in court on Wednesday, a woman in the public gallery shouted her support for the prince, adding: “If you’re members of the press, you’re the reason he’s no longer in England.”
Harry and Meghan have started a new life in California with their two young children and are now largely estranged from the royal family.
But the prince has said security concerns have hampered his ability to visit Britain, and his trips have usually been fleeting.
At the end of the hearing, judge Geoffrey Vos said the Court of Appeal’s decision would be given in writing at a later date, which was “most unlikely” to be before Easter on April 20.
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