Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service says it intends to prosecute the Metropolitan Police under the Health and Safety Act for last year’s shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. But it will not pursue criminal charges against individual officers involved.
On 22 July 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes – an innocent 27 year old Brazilian working as an electrician in London – was shot seven times in the head by police marksmen who had mistakenly identified him as a terror suspect. London police were at the time hunting suspects from four attempted bombings carried out the previous day across the capital.
A major police sweep began immediately because the perpetrators had of course not died in the failed suicide bombings. One clue, a written address found inside an unexploded bag, is said to have pointed to a three-storey block of flats in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill. Home by chance to Mr de Menezes, among many others.
Reacting to the CPS decision, the victim’s family have called the move “completely unbelievable”, while chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Policing, Lord Toby Harris, branded it a “ridiculous cop-out”. London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the decision made “absolutely no sense”, and the Met also reacted negatively, saying it created “uncertainty” over its role in protecting the public from terrorists.
The cousin of Mr de Menezes, Patricia da Silva Armani, has said she is “sickened” by the CPS move, adding: “I am very disappointed. This is shameful. By using these laws to cover up their own mistakes, they are treating my cousin like a dead animal.”…
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