McCann and Others v UK, Application No. 18984/91 (Grand Chamber) [1995]

1st January 1995

• European Court of Human Rights
• Finalised
• Article 2, Northern Ireland, Surveillance
• Intervenor

The facts of the case

This case scrutinised the legality of the killing of three members of the Provisional IRA the suspects)by British Special Forces in 1988u2014widelyknown as the u201cGibraltar Shootings case. The killings occurred during the conduct of an anti-terrorist operation aimed at preventing a terrorist attack during a military parade in Gibraltar. The authorities shot the suspects upon appearance at the location of the suspected attack, where they drove, parked, and exited a car that the authorities believed contained an explosive device. It was subsequently discovered that the suspects were unarmed, had no detonator devices on their persons, and had no explosive device in their car. All soldiers admitted that they shot to kill. An inquest took place into the killings, at which the families of the deceased, the Special Forces soldiers, and the UK Government were represented.

RSIs intervention in the case

Then British Irish Rights Watch, RSIs intervention focused on the adequacy of the inquiry carried out after the suspects were killed. RSIs argued that Article 2(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights the Convention) included a procedural requirement that the state provides an effective procedure for establishing the facts surrounding a killing by state agents, through an independent judicial process to which relatives must have full access. RSI submitted that this had not been met for a number of reasons:

• No independent police investigation took place regarding any aspect of the operation leading to the shootings;
• Normal scene-of-crime procedures were not followed;
• Not all eyewitnesses were traced or interviewed by the police;
• The Coroner sat with a jury which was drawn from a “garrison”” town with close ties to the military;
• The Coroner refused to allow the jury to be screened to exclude members who were Crown servants;
• The public interest certificates issued by the relevant Government authorities effectively curtailed an examination of the overall operation.

RSI also submitted that a violation of Article 2 occurred whenever the European Court of Human Rights the Court)finds serious differences between the investigation conducted into a death