McCANN AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT JOINT DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGES RYSSDAL, BERNHARDT, THÓR VILHJÁLMSSON, GÖLCÜKLÜ, PALM, PEKKANEN, SIR JOHN FREELAND, BAKA AND JAMBREK 58 law, reached by a majority of nine to two a verdict of lawful killing. The circumstances were subsequently investigated in depth and evaluated by the Commission, which found in its report, by a majority of eleven to six, that there had been no violation of the Convention. The finding of the inquest, as a domestic tribunal operating under the relevant domestic law, is not of itself determinative of the Convention issues before the Court. But, having regard to the crucial importance in this case of a proper appreciation of the facts and to the advantage undeniably enjoyed by the jury in having observed the demeanour of the witnesses when giving their evidence under examination and cross-examination, its significance should certainly not be underestimated. Similarly, the Commission’s establishment and evaluation of the facts is not conclusive for the Court; but it would be mistaken for the Court, at yet one further remove from the evidence as given by the witnesses, to fail to give due weight to the report of the Commission, the body which is primarily charged under the Convention with the finding of facts and which has, of course, great experience in the discharge of that task. 8. Before turning to the various aspects of the operation which are criticised in the judgment, we would underline three points of a general nature. First, in undertaking any evaluation of the way in which the operation was organised and controlled, the Court should studiously resist the temptations offered by the benefit of hindsight. The authorities had at the time to plan and make decisions on the basis of incomplete information. Only the suspects knew at all precisely what they intended; and it was part of their purpose, as it had no doubt been part of their training, to ensure that as little as possible of their intentions was revealed. It would be wrong to conclude in retrospect that a particular course would, as things later transpired, have been better than one adopted at the time under the pressures of an ongoing anti-terrorist operation and that the latter course must therefore be regarded as culpably mistaken. It should not be so regarded unless it is established that in the circumstances as they were known at the time another course should have been preferred. 9. Secondly, the need for the authorities to act within the constraints of the law, while the suspects were operating in a state of mind in which members of the security forces were regarded as legitimate targets and incidental death or injury to civilians as of little consequence, would inevitably give the suspects a tactical advantage which should not be allowed to prevail. The consequences of the explosion of a large bomb in the centre of Gibraltar might well be so devastating that the authorities could not responsibly risk giving the suspects the opportunity to set in train the detonation of such a bomb. Of course the obligation of the United Kingdom under Article 2 para. 1 (art. 2-1) of the Convention extended to