43 McCANN AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT Nevertheless, it must be borne in mind that the jury’s finding was limited to a decision of lawful killing and, as is normally the case, did not provide reasons for the conclusion that it reached. In addition, the focus of concern of the inquest proceedings and the standard applied by the jury was whether the killings by the soldiers were reasonably justified in the circumstances as opposed to whether they were "absolutely necessary" under Article 2 para. 2 (art. 2-2) in the sense developed above (see paragraphs 120 and 148-49 above). 171. Against this background, the Court must make its own assessment whether the facts as established by the Commission disclose a violation of Article 2 (art. 2) of the Convention. 172. The applicants further submitted that in examining the actions of the State in a case in which the use of deliberate lethal force was expressly contemplated in writing, the Court should place on the Government the onus of proving, beyond reasonable doubt, that the planning and execution of the operation was in accordance with Article 2 (art. 2) of the Convention. In addition, it should not grant the State authorities the benefit of the doubt as if its criminal liability were at stake. 173. The Court, in determining whether there has been a breach of Article 2 (art. 2) in the present case, is not assessing the criminal responsibility of those directly or indirectly concerned. In accordance with its usual practice therefore it will assess the issues in the light of all the material placed before it by the applicants and by the Government or, if necessary, material obtained of its own motion (see the Ireland v. the United Kingdom judgment of 18 January 1978, Series A no. 25, p. 64, para. 160, and the above-mentioned Cruz Varas and Others judgment, p. 29, para. 75). 2. Applicants’ allegation that the killings were premeditated 174. The applicants alleged that there had been a premeditated plan to kill the deceased. While conceding that there was no evidence of a direct order from the highest authorities in the Ministry of Defence, they claimed that there was strong circumstantial evidence in support of their allegation. They suggested that a plot to kill could be achieved by other means such as hints and innuendoes, coupled with the choice of a military unit like the SAS which, as indicated by the evidence given by their members at the inquest, was trained to neutralise a target by shooting to kill. Supplying false information of the sort that was actually given to the soldiers in this case would render a fatal shooting likely. The use of the SAS was, in itself, evidence that the killing was intended. 175. They further contended that the Gibraltar police would not have been aware of such an unlawful enterprise. They pointed out that the SAS officer E gave his men secret briefings to which the Gibraltar police were not privy. Moreover, when the soldiers attended the police station after the shootings, they were accompanied by an army lawyer who made it clear that