Family of de Menezes lose High Court battle

Jean Charles de Menezes
Handout.
13 April 2012

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes have lost their High Court battle over the Crown Prosecution Service's decision not to charge any police officers in connection with his death.

Lawyers for the family said later they were "very disappointed" and would be seeking to appeal to the House of Lords.

Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian national, was shot dead on July 22 last year after police mistook him for a suicide bomber. He was hit seven times in the head by anti-terror officers at Stockwell tube station in south London.

The incident came a day after a series of alleged attempts to detonate bombs on London's transport network and two weeks after the July 7 bombings.

Family lawyers argued at a recent two-day hearing that if no individual officer was personally held accountable for the death of the 27-year-old electrician "the rule of law would be undermined".

They wanted prosecutions to be brought for murder or gross-negligence manslaughter. But today three senior High Court judges dismissed the challenge "on all grounds".

Lord Justice Richards, sitting with Mr Justice Forbes and Mr Justice Mackay, at the High Court in London, ruled the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions and CPS not to order prosecutions on the basis that they were "likely to fail" was "a reasonable one".

There had been no violation of human rights, the court declared in a written judgment.

At a recent hearing which led to today's ruling, lawyers for the de Menezes family contended in court there was prime facie evidence that officers involved in the shooting were "lying" when they said they suspected Mr de Menezes of being a suicide bomber "about to act".

But, after probing the actions of 15 officers, the CPS decided there was "insufficient evidence" to bring individual prosecutions. Instead the office of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner is to be prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

If found guilty of health and safety breaches, the Metropolitan Police would face an unlimited fine - which the family dismisses as an "absolutely inadequate" penalty for the death.

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