Item 34 - Case of McCann and Others v. the United Kingdom (17/1994/464/545), Judgment

68pp

Published judgment in the McCann and others case (application no. 18984/91, European Court of Human Rights case number 17/1994/464/545). The applicants lodged their application with the European Commission of Human Rights on 14 August 1991. The applicants complained that the March 1988 killings of Provisional Irish Republican Army members Daniel McCann, Mairead Farrell, and Sean Savage by members of the British Special Air Service (Special Air Service) in Gibraltar constituted a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Thames Television programme ""Death on the Rock"" presented evidence that the IRA members were shot without warning or with their hands up. It was condemned by the British government and denounced in the press as sensationalist. After one of its witnesses retracted his statement, ""Death on the Rock"" became the first individual documentary to be the subject of an independent inquiry, in which it was largely vindicated.
The Commission's report found no violation of Article 2 but referred the case to the European Court of Human Rights for a final decision. The court rejected the families' submission that the British government had conspired to kill the three but did find a violation of Article 2 in the defective planning and control of the operation. Nevertheless, the applicants' claim for damages was dismissed on the grounds that the trio had been killed while preparing an act of terrorism, though it did order the government to pay the applicants' costs. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-57943

• English