Whole-life jail terms without review breach human rights - European court

Three murderers, including Jeremy Bamber, have right to review of sentence, but ECHR judgment doesn't make release imminent

Whole-life jail sentences without any prospect of release amount to inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners, the European court of human rights has ruled.
The landmark judgment will set the ECHR on a fresh collision course with the UK government but does not mean that any of the applicants – the convicted murderers Jeremy Bamber, Peter Moore and Douglas Vinter – are likely to be released soon.
In its decision, the Strasbourg court said there had been a violation of article 3 of the European convention on human rights, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment.
The judgment said: "For a life sentence to remain compatible with article 3 there had to be both a possibility of release and a possibility of review."

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