Video would create immediate risk to life if released, say judges

THREE VIDEO clips of the killing of an insurgent by Royal Marine Alexander Blackman cannot be released to the media as they would create “a real and immediate risk to life”, the Royal Courts of Justice heard yesterday.

Appeal judges gave their reasons at the hearing in London yesterday for refusing an application to make available the clips taken by Marine B, who captured the incident with a helmet camera. The Ministry of Defence argued that if they were made public, any broadcast would be recorded by the terrorist organisations and then used as propaganda to radicalise others.

Three other clips, which showed the landscape and some of the Marines shortly before the killing, have been released. The transcript and audio of all six clips and some stills are also in the public domain.

There was evidence from Peter Wilson, of the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism at the Home Office, that the clips would provide terrorists with material they could use to underpin their “justification” for undertaking terrorist attacks against the western powers and to underpin their extremist narrative at a tactical and strategic level.

They would use it to argue that western powers are corrupt, do not adhere to their own rules, such as the military rules of engagement and the Geneva Convention, and claim that this was the way the armed forces of the western powers treat insurgents on the battlefield, he said.

The judges, headed by Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, added: “It was said that in the three years since the video emerged, nothing had been seen that surpassed it in terms of radicalisation potential.

“Releasing it would therefore present a real threat to life, the members of the Armed Forces and the wider British public and to British interests overseas.”

Mr Wilson’s statement pointed to the increase since 2013 in the ambitions, capabilities and scale of terrorist communications, the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013 and the attacks that had taken place.

The statement concluded the footage would “trigger a tipping point” for many sympathisers into immediate violent action and create “a real and immediate risk to life”.