13 April,2010 09:46 AM IST | | Agencies
Atheist campaigners are planning a legal ambush to have Pope Benedict XVI arrested during his state visit to Britain over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
Authors Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens argue that the pope should be arrested when he visits Britain in September and put on trial "for crimes against humanity".
The pair believe they can employ the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.
The pope will be in Britain on September 16-19, visiting London, Glasgow and Coventry, where he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, a 19th century theologian.
The Vatican has suggested the pope is immune from prosecution because he is a head of state.
But Dawkins and Hitchens insist the pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is classed as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations.
They have asked leading barrister Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens, a solicitor, to prepare a justification for legal action. Stephens said one option for Dawkins and Hitchens was to apply to the International Criminal Court for a warrant.
