News In Focus
24 August 2006
Prestwick military ban court bid rejected
Legal action to prevent Prestwick and other British airports being used by US aircraft supplying munitions to Israel failed in the High Court in London yesterday.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission had sought permission to bring judicial review proceedings against the UK Government for knowingly assisting "acts of terrorism" in the form of the Israeli military action directed against Hezbollah fighters operating out of Lebanon.
The IHRC alleged that the UK was aiding and abetting breaches of international law by allowing stopovers for the aircraft, due to grave violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions committed during the conflict.
However Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed the action as "hopeless" as it was necessary to identify some individual who had committed or was intending to commit acts of terrorism in the UK. The court had been shown no evidence that the state of Israel was engaged in crimes of terrorism or that the UK Government considered that it might be.