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Richard III: Plantagenet Alliance's legal challenge over king's bones is 'tosh'

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A judicial review into the legality of Richard III's exhumation has been branded as "tosh" by the University of Leicester. A group of 15 people, claiming to be relatives of the last Plantagenet king, is planning to launch a legal challenge aimed at quashing the Ministry of Justice exhumation certificate obtained by the university's archaeologists last year. The document enables the academics to choose the location of the reinterment of the king's remains. They have chosen Leicester Cathedral - the nearest consecrated ground to the excavation site, which they say is in line with the best archaeological and canon practices. However, the Plantagenet Alliance, a collection of individuals from Yorkshire, is now seeking a judicial review of the MoJ certificate. They claim the licence breaches the European Convention of Human Rights. Matthew Howarth, partner at Yorkshire law firm Gordons, which is working on the challenges, said: "We have now written officially to the Ministry of Justice and University of Leicester, notifying them that we plan to issue these claims. "This enables us to obtain some further information from them relating to the matters in question. "We will follow up by issuing the judicial review and other proceedings as soon as possible, but certainly within the next few weeks." The Plantagenet Alliance wants the exhumation licence quashed and the remains of King Richard III reburied at York Minster. They claim that the MoJ should have consulted them (as relatives) before issuing the licence. But Dr Turi King, the geneticist who identified the remains as those of the king, said they are not relatives in the legal sense and are not exclusively related to the former monarch. "From the genetics point of view, we are all related, it's simply a matter of degree," said Dr King. "Richard III had no living descendants and therefore only has relatives. "All this is moot, however, as my understanding is that they aren't considered to be 'relatives' in terms of having a say over where Richard III is reinterred, as he lived over 100 years ago and they didn't know him personally." City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby also dismissed the challenge. He said: "They stand no chance whatsoever. It's one of the most absurd claims I've heard of from an organisation I've never heard of." Deputy registrar at the university Richard Taylor Tweeted following the announcement of the legal challenge. He wrote: "I've been measured in my comments on the reinterment of Richard III, but the argument a Leicester reinterment breaches human rights is tosh." Speaking to the Mercury yesterday, he also said: "We've sought legal advice and been told that there's no basis to the challenge. "We think our position is strong and there's no need to overreact or do anything else at this point. "I can't see how quoting the European Convention on Human Rights is going to get these people anywhere - they haven't even met Richard III. It's just an imagined relationship."

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