Harry, 40, attended two days of hearings in April, when his lawyer told the court that he had been singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment.
Harry’s ‘life at stake’, lawyer says
His lawyer Shaheed Fatima said Harry’s “life was stake”, citing that al Qaeda had recently called for him to be murdered, and he and Meghan had been involved in “a dangerous car pursuit with paparazzi in New York City” in 2023.
However, the government’s legal team said the bespoke arrangement for the prince had positive advantages from a security assessment point of view.
Harry, along with other senior royals, had received full publicly-funded security protection provided by the state before his high-profile exit from official royal life in March 2020.
The Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures, known as RAVEC, then decided Harry would no longer receive the same level of protection, a decision Vos said was “an understandable and perhaps predictable reaction” to him stepping down from royal duties and moving abroad.
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Harry, who has been involved in a number of court cases with tabloid papers, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper after the April hearings that this case “mattered the most” and evidence heard in secret had confirmed his “worst fears”.
The prince has often spoken out about his concerns, referring back to the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed when her chauffeur-driven car crashed as it sped away from chasing paparazzi in Paris in 1997.
Next week, Harry’s legal team will be back at the High Court as part of the lawsuit he has brought with singer Elton John and other against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and MailOnline, over alleged widespread unlawful activities.
In January, he was paid substantial damages by Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group after it settled a claim he had brought against its titles and admitted it had intruded into his private life.
Reuters
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