LONDON: The UK’s Prince Harry, duke of Sussex, requested taxpayer-funded protection following a murder threat against him by Al-Qaeda, new court documents show.
The prince is in a legal battle with the UK Home Office over the level of taxpayer-funded personal security he receives when traveling back home from the US, and the documents were revealed following the duke of Sussex’s appearance at London’s Royal Courts of Justice last week, The Independent newspaper reported.
The Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) ordered in 2020 that Prince Harry should receive a lower grade of security when in the UK.
He fought back against the decision, but the High Court dismissed his case against the Home Office last year, which he is now appealing.
Private evidence was heard in the case, showing that Prince Harry submitted a request for protection following the Al-Qaeda threat.
A court summary said the prince “confirmed that he had requested certain protection after a threat was made against him” by the terror organization.
Prince Harry previously claimed he faces a greater risk than Princess Diana, his late mother, with “additional layers of racism and extremism.”
After the RAVEC decision in 2020, Al-Qaeda called for Prince Harry “to be murdered,” written submissions in the prince’s appeal say.
Shaheed Fatima KC, for the prince, said that his security team was told that Al-Qaeda had released a document which said his “assassination would please the Muslim community.”
The RAVEC decision was made after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they would step back from public duties in early 2020.
The pair were later told that, while in the UK, they would no longer receive the full-scale police protection offered to the king and queen, the prince and princess of Wales, and their three children.
An alternative “bespoke” security detail was arranged for the duke and duchess of Sussex.
They are required to give 30 days’ notice of their arrival in Britain for officials to make threat assessments.
Prince Harry had been “singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment,” Fatima said, adding that he “does not accept that ‘bespoke’ means ‘better.’”
