Two convicted killers and another long-term prisoner yesterday began a legal battle to overturn the blanket ban on jailed criminals voting in an issue of "fundamental constitutional importance" in next year's Scottish independence referendum.
The men claim a decision to exclude them is incompatible with their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and is unlawful.
Murderers Andrew Gillon and Leslie Moohan and the third inmate Gary Gibson maintain that they want to vote in the poll on Scotland's future on September 18.
They have launched a judicial review at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to have sections of franchise legislation for the referendum which deny them and other inmates serving prison sentences the vote set aside.
Prisoners on remand will be entitled to vote in the poll on the country's future.
Scotland's senior law officer, the Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC, is opposing the judicial review petitions brought by the prisoners and maintains that the claims are misconceived and they are not entitled to the legal remedies sought.
The hearing continues.
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