76 Human Rights in Counter-Terrorism Investigations Human rights concerns may also arise in relation to the planning of a police operation to prevent terrorism-related acts. Useful guidance on this issue can be drawn from the case described below.76 It has important implications for senior police officers involved in leading such operations, as they also have to account for their actions and decisions when force is used. Case Study – Command responsibility* Security services in state A have uncovered a bombing plot planned to take place during an official ceremony attended by many tourists. They have also discovered that three known terrorism suspects have travelled to the area of the ceremony’s location. One of them is known to be an explosive expert and the two others have previous convictions for possessing explosives and causing explosions. Security services believe that the three suspects intend to place the bomb in a car to carry out this attack. The police, supported by army special forces units, mount an operation to prevent the attack and arrest the terrorism suspects. Two days before the event, one of the suspects is seen to park a car near the location of the ceremony. He is soon joined by the two other suspects, and all three of them are then seen walking away from the vehicle. The police and army, believing that the car contains a bomb, decide to arrest the suspects. The soldiers have been briefed that the terrorism suspects may be armed and that the detonation of the bomb might be by remote control. As they approach them, the suspects make sudden movements that the soldiers interpret as action to detonate the car bomb. In reaction, the soldiers shoot all three dead. It is later discovered that none of the suspects was armed, that they did not have a detonator device and that the vehicle did not contain any explosives. The suspects may have been carrying out a trial run for the real attack. Question: Is the use of force by the soldiers proportionate to the aim pursued? Has the right to life of the three suspects been violated? The use of lethal force by the soldiers was based on an honest belief derived from the information gathered that the suspects had planted a car bomb and that they were armed. The soldiers believed that the bomb was about to be 76 ECtHR judgments, op. cit., note 47.