Andrew Gillon and Leslie Moohan lose bid to vote in referendum Two murderers have lost a legal battle to win the right to vote in next year's Scottish independence referendum. Killers Andrew Gillon and Leslie Moohan, and a third long-term prisoner Gary Gibson, challenged the blanket ban on convicted inmates having their say at the ballot box on the country's future. But Judge Lord Glennie on Thursday ruled that the judicial reviews brought by the trio, who are all prisoners in Addiewell jail in West Lothian, must be refused. Gillon and Moohan are both serving life sentences imposed in 1998 and 2008, respectively, after being convicted of committing murders and Gibson is serving a seven year and four month jail term imposed on him last year. Gillon was ordered to serve a minimum term of 12 years for the slaying of Gary Johnstone, 25, who suffered repeated blows to the head from a spade in Bathgate, West Lothian. His punishment part period was finished in 2010 but he has continued to be detained on the grounds of the risk that he poses. The parole board is not due to look at his case again until September 22 next year, four days after the date of the referendum. Moohan was ordered to serve a minimum term of 15 years after murdering father-of-two David Redpath, from Peterhead, at a hostel in Edinburgh. He claimed he had performed "the last rites" on the dead body of the former oil worker.He is not eligible for release until February 2023 at the earliest. Lord Glennie said: "None of the petitioners is due to be released until after the date fixed for the referendum. They will all still be serving prisoners at the time of the referendum. As such they will be ineligible to vote under the terms of the Franchise Act for the referendum but each wants to cast a vote at the ballot box. The trio claimed that the blanket ban on convicted prisoners voting in the poll was unlawful and incompatible with their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). They also claimed that where the result of the referendum would or might lead to the loss of European Union rights the blanket ban was contrary to EU law. The European Court of Human Rights has previously held that a blanket ban on prisoners voting is unlawful following a case brought by axe killer John Hirst. But Lord Glennie said it had consistently been held that the part of the ECHR concerning an undertaking over free elections by secret ballot applied to voting in elections for the legislature and did not apply to casting a ballot in a referendum. The judge also said: "Though I accept the existence of a fundamental or constitutional right to vote in general terms, I have come to the conclusion that that right does not extend to voting in a referendum. In my opinion, any constitutional right to vote is, in principle, limited to the right to vote for the members of parliament. In Scotland it extends, by virtue of the Scotland Act, to voting for members of the Scottish Parliament.