The two men who murdered soldier Lee Rigby are due to be sentenced this month after a key ruling over the use of whole life jail terms.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, will learn how long they face behind bars when they return to the dock at the Old Bailey, London, on February 20.
They are due to be sentenced by Mr Justice Sweeney, who said when they were found guilty of the horrific killing that he would wait for a key decision by appeal court judges over whole life tariffs.
The appeal judges' ruling has not yet been announced.
Fusilier Rigby, 25, was run over and then butchered by the pair in front of onlookers in Woolwich, London, on May 22 last year.
The men, who declared they were soldiers of Allah, targeted him because he was wearing a Help For Heroes hooded top and they assumed he was a serviceman.
A panel of five judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, heard argument at the Court Of Appeal on January 24 on behalf of Attorney General Dominic Grieve, that tariffs which mean criminals have to spend the rest of their days behind bars are not "manifestly excessive or wrong in principle".
The Attorney General referred the case of triple killer Ian McLoughlin to the court on the grounds that it was "unduly lenient" and should be increased.
Mr Justice Sweeney had given McLoughlin a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years.
The appeal judges were also asked to rule on a sentence challenge by double killer Lee Newell, who is facing dying behind bars for murdering child killer Subhan Anwar in prison.
Those serving whole-life terms in England and Wales include Moors Murderer Ian Brady, serial killer Rosemary West, and Mark Bridger, who murdered five-year-old April Jones.
The sentences were deemed a breach of human rights following a successful appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by murderers Jeremy Bamber, Douglas Vinter and Peter Moore.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article