A government appeal against a European ruling that prisoners have the right to vote is due to be heard.
It comes after John Hirst, 53, won a challenge at the European Court of Human Rights that current rules denying prisoners a vote breached their rights.
Hirst, who is a serving life sentence for manslaughter, argued the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteed the "right to free election".
The appeal hearing is due to go before a 17-judge grand chamber.
Human right
In the UK, the 1983 Representation of the People Act does not allow convicts to vote in parliamentary and local elections.
Hirst, who is currently being held at Rye Hill prison, Warwickshire, mounted a legal challenge when his application to register to vote was turned down.
The High Court rejected his claim that Section 3 of the act is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, which the UK has signed up to.
But his lawyers argued in Europe that he had the right to vote under the convention's guarantee to the "right to free elections", the "right to free expression" and "prohibition of discrimination".
Unanimous verdict
The European judges delivered a unanimous verdict, ruling that denying a prisoner a vote does breach the "right to free elections" set out in the convention.
Hirst was awarded £8,000 in costs and expenses by the Strasbourg court.
But it has now allowed the government to appeal the ruling.
Hirst pleaded guilty on 11 February 1980 to a charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to "discretionary life imprisonment".
A final verdict on the appeal will be delivered later this year.
(BBC)
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