Rose Gentle and Beverley Clarke, the mothers of two 19-year-old soldiers killed in Iraq, are asking the Lords to set up an independent inquiry into whether the Iraq war was legal before the invasion in 2003.
The case is being brought against the prime minister, the defence secretary and the attorney general.
It's a three-day hearing, and they will hear it with nine law lords, instead of the usual five.
Their lawyer, Phil Shiner, will argue that Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights obliges the government to take reasonable steps to ensure that its service personnel do not face the risk of death, except in lawful military activities. Article 2 is the section used in cases like Jean Charles de Menezes, or ordering inquiries into Hep C deaths.
A little-noticed clause in the Counter Terrorism Bill would enable the Home Secetary to remove juries, or the coroner, from these kind of independent inquiries. The Home Secretary could order the changes if it was deemed to be in Britain's national interest, if it would affect the UK's relationship with another country, or "otherwise in the public interest." So, whenever the Home Secretary wants!
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