MOSCOW, January 3 (RAPSI) - UK Prime Minister David Cameron has voiced his support for plans that would introduce sentencing structures similar to those found in the US, where murderers and other such serious offenders can be handed sentences exceeding 100 years, The Guardian reported Friday.

An information sheet on the UK Government website describes a whole life term as a sentence with “no minimum term set by the judge, and the person’s never considered for release.”

This sentencing practice fell under the scrutiny of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, however, when three convicted murderers challenged their whole life sentences, complaining – according to an ECHR statement on the case – their “imprisonment without hope of release amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment.”

The ECHR’s Grand Chamber issued a final judgment on the matter in September, finding that there had in fact been a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights’ Article 3 prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment.

The statement described the Grand Chamber’s reasoning as follows: “Given this lack of clarity and the absence of a dedicated review mechanism for whole life orders, the Court was not persuaded that, at the present time, the applicants’ life sentences were compatible with Article 3. It therefore found that there had been a violation of Article 3 in respect of each applicant.”

The applicants in the ECHR complaint included a man convicted of having murdered his wife over a decade after he was convicted of murdering a colleague; a man convicted of murdering his adoptive parents, his sister, and her two young children; and a man convicted of the murders of four men, according to the statement.

The Guardian reports that the UK government will be required to face the impact of the ECHR decision prior to next year’s elections, and that steep sentence increases are among various options being considered at present.

Cameron was quoted in the report as having stated Thursday, There are some people who commit such dreadful crimes that they should be sent to prison and life should mean life. Whatever the European court has said, we must put in place arrangements to make sure that can continue."