A twice-convicted rapist who claimed his human rights were breached because he was not allowed to vote in the 2019 general election has lost his case.
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section) found there had been no violation of Michael Christopher Hora’s right to free elections (Article 3 of Protocol 1 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms).
Hora, who is currently detained in HMP Bure, Norwich, is serving an indeterminate prison sentence after he was convicted in October 2007 of two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. He was previously convicted of rape in 2000 and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, a term reduced on appeal.
Hora was ineligible to vote in the 2019 General Election by dint of his detention. He argued that that the UK government was in violation of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. The UK argued the application was ‘inadmissible as it was manifestly ill-founded’.
The ECtHR judgment, Hora v The United Kingdom, said: ‘Although the applicant’s minimum term has expired, his release has not yet been directed by the Parole Board because he has failed to demonstrate that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that he continue to be detained. It cannot be said that the disenfranchisement of the present applicant, on account of the seriousness of his offending, his conduct, the risk he was found to pose to the public and the resulting imposition of a harsh sentence of indeterminate detention, was disproportionate to the legitimate aims pursued by restrictions of the franchise applied to convicted prisoners.’
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It added that once Hora was ‘deemed safe for release by the Parole Board and has, consequently, been released, his right to vote will be restored to him’.
The ECtHR, sitting as a Chamber composed of president Arnfinn Bårdsen, and judges Tim Eicke, Jovan Ilievski, Oddný Mjöll Arnardóttir, Gediminas Sagatys, Stéphane Pisani, and Juha Lavapuro and section registrar Hasan Bakırcı, unanimously found no violation of Hora’s right to vote.
