Rapist wins prisoners the right to vote by 2011: EU human rights court sets six month deadline for Britain

Rapist wins prisoners the right to vote by 2011: EU human rights court sets six month deadline for Britain

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:59 AM on 24th November 2010

Ken Clarke: Voting might 'widen the mind' of prisoners

Rapist Robert Greens claimed that barring him from voting infringed his human rights

Judges have given David Cameron six months to honour a pledge to give prisoners the vote after a jailed rapist successfully claimed his human rights had been infringed.

Robert Greens, 32, complained to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that banning British inmates from taking part in elections is illegal.

The Government was ordered to pay Greens costs of £4,230 and to give all convicts the vote by May 2011.

The Prime Minister has no choice but to comply with the European directive or face compensation payouts to 2,500 prisoners who have already lodged legal claims in Strasbourg.

Greens was jailed for ten years in 2006 for raping a Dutch student near Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. He tried to blame the assault on his identical twin brother.

Five years ago, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain's total ban on votes for prisoners was illegal.

But the Labour Government left it in place, angering civil liberties groups and triggering a warning earlier this year from human rights watchdog the Council of Europe.

Then three weeks ago Minister for Political and Constitutional reform Mark Harper told the Commons that the coalition reluctantly accepted that Britain had a legal obligation to fall in line, but had not yet decided which inmates it would affect.

He said: 'I think every member in the House is exasperated about this but we have no choice about complying with the law.'

But he said the Government had to comply - or face possible compensation claims running into millions in a flood of new human rights claims by inmates.

Cheers!: Axe killerJohn Hirst enjoys a glass of Champagne and a spliff after securing a landmark European ruling giving prisoners the vote

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said yesterday that voting might 'widen the mind' of prisoners and prepare them for the obligations of citizenship.

The original case five years ago was a landmark victory for convicted axe killer John Hirst from Hull.

European courts earlier this month supported Hirst’s claim that Britain’s ban on convicted prisoners voting was a breach of human rights law.

Obligations of citizenship: Ken Clarke, pictured in Downing Street yesterday, said voting might 'widen the mind' of prisoners

Mr Cameron claimed to be ‘angry and exasperated’ at having to take the decision, despite failing to fight to keep the 140-year-old ban in place.

Legal experts say even the country’s most reviled and dangerous inmates will now get the vote – including child-killers Ian Huntley, Rose West and Roy Whiting. It could see candidates potentially visiting inmates in prison to canvass.

In yesterday's case, Greens and another prisoner named only as M.T. - both serving time at Peterhead prison and due to be released this year - were each awarded £4,230.

The judgment said that, as a result of the UK's failure to act on the ruling five years ago, the two prisoners remained unable to vote, specifically in the June 2009 European Parliament elections and this May's general election which put Mr Cameron into power.

The judgment noted 'that the new UK Government was 'actively considering the best way of implementing the judgment', but the judges said it was 'far from apparent' that an 'appropriate solution' would be in place in time for the Scottish elections, scheduled for May 2011 - triggering a possible new wave of applications to the Court.

The Scottish government is opposed to giving prisoners the right to vote, but although justice policy is devolved to Scotland, decisions on voting eligibility remain a 'reserved matter' for the UK government, and any rule changes introduced by the coalition would apply.

Today the judges decided not specify the detail of future UK law on prisoner voting rights, but said the lengthy delay so far in changing the current rules warranted the imposition of a deadline for action.

No choice: The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that Britain's total ban on votes for prisoners was illegal

It was set at six months from the date today's verdict becomes 'final', which is in three months.

That amounts to nine months in all to draw up proposals, 'with the enactment of an electoral law meeting the Court's requirements to be delivered according to any time-scale determined by the (Human Rights) Committee of Ministers'.

About 40 per cent of the countries in the Council of Europe - which include all 27 EU member states - have no restrictions on prisoners voting. Others only ban some sentenced prisoners from voting. In France and Germany, courts have the power to impose loss of voting rights as an additional punishment.

The UK is among a few European countries including Armenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary and Romania, which automatically remove voting rights from sentenced prisoners, although UK remand prisoners still have the vote.