A GREEN MP, Caroline Lucas, and a peer, Baroness Jones, are challenging Tory PM Cameron over his policy of ‘targeted killings’ of UK citizens abroad.
The High Court action follows Cameron’s announcement earlier this month that two British nationals were killed by a UK drone in Raqqah, Syria. Speaking on 7th September, Cameron told the House of Commons that the victims of the attack were members of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
In a letter sent yesterday to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Attorney General, Caroline Lucas MP said: ‘The Government appears to have adopted a “Kill Policy” in secret – without Parliamentary debate or the prospect of proper independent scrutiny. ‘Sanctioning lethal drone attacks on British citizens is a significant departure from previous policy, as well as potentially unlawful, and it’s deeply concerning that it has occurred without appropriate oversight.By refusing to publish the legal basis for these attacks, the Government has created a legal and accountability vacuum.’
Baroness Jones said: ‘The Government can’t argue that they are defending British values of democracy and the rule of law if they suddenly invent a new “bomb-to-kill” policy which ignores all those democratic traditions and safeguards. If our Government is saying it will kill certain individuals, outside of armed conflict, whenever the opportunity arises, then you have to ask several obvious questions.
‘Which countries do we, and don’t we, apply this to? Who decides that these people are guilty and how is that evidence challenged and proven without judicial oversight? ‘If it is seen as likely that the individuals pose a direct and imminent threat to our safety, but remain at large for six months, or a year, when is the “immediacy” reassessed?
‘How many individuals are we targeting and why are we applying a death sentence to them rather than others? The Government need to not only answer these key questions, they need to be prepared to have their answers debated in public and challenged.’
Kat Craig, legal director at Reprieve commented on the letter saying: ‘The Government has said it has the power to kill anyone, anywhere in the world, without oversight or safeguards. This is a huge step, and at the very least the Prime Minister should come clean about his new kill policy. Instead, we are seeing the UK follow the US down the dangerous path of secret, unaccountable drone strikes – a policy which has led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Pakistan and Yemen, without making us any safer.
‘Parliament and the public deserve to know what is being done in their name. It is disappointing that MPs are having to turn to the courts to extract even the most basic information on a policy which the Prime Minister himself has described as a “new departure” for the country.’