Prince Harry's 'life is at stake' in bid for UK security protection, lawyer says
Prince Harry listened to closing arguments in a London courtroom Wednesday in his last-chance bid to change the U.K. government's stance on his security.
During the closing remarks, Harry's lawyer, Shaheed Fatima KC, told the judge that Harry's "life is at stake" in his bid for security protection for himself and his family while in the United Kingdom.
“There is a person sitting behind me whose safety, whose security, and whose life is at stake," Fatima said. "There is a person sitting behind me who is being told he is getting a special bespoke process when he knows and has experienced a process that is manifestly inferior in every respect."
Harry, the Duke of Sussex, is challenging a 2020 decision by the U.K. government that denied his family automatic taxpayer-funded police protection while in Britain after he and his wife, Duchess Meghan, stepped away from their senior royal roles.
At the time, the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures, known as RAVEC, made a decision that security for the Sussexes would be granted on a case-by-case basis. The committee also rejected Harry's proposal to personally pay for police protection for his family while visiting the U.K.
Last February, a London judge ruled the U.K. government had the right to strip Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, of an automatic security detail during visits to Britain.
In their appeal of that ruling, Harry's lawyers argued in court this week that the 40-year-old faces security risks, including from al-Qaeda, who they say have called for Harry's assassination.
Harry, the fifth-in-line to the throne, has said previously that his security risk is so high in the U.K. he feels reluctant to bring his family to his home country.
After stepping away from their senior royal roles, Harry and Meghan moved to California, where they now live with their two children, Archie and Lilibet. The family of four is not known to have traveled to the U.K. together since 2022, when they attended Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Harry's grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Since moving to California, the Sussexes have relied on a privately funded security team.
Harry traveled from California to the U.K. to attend this week's hearings, arriving to court Tuesday and Wednesday on his own, without his wife Meghan or any royal family members.
It is not known whether Harry will see any family members while in the U.K.
His father, the king, is currently in Rome on a four-day state visit with his wife, Queen Camilla.
Harry's brother, Prince William, lives around 30 minutes outside London, in Windsor, England, with his wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, and their three children.
Neither Kensington Palace nor Buckingham Palace replied to ABC News' questions about Harry's visit.
A spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex, as Harry is also known, told ABC News, "As a rule, we do not provide guidance on family relations."
