De Menezes shooting police 'lied'

12 April 2012

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes have argued there is evidence police officers who shot dead the Brazilian were "lying" when they said they suspected him of being a suicide bomber "about to act".

Lawyers for the family asked three High Court judges to quash a Crown Prosecution Service decision that there was "insufficient evidence" to bring individual prosecutions against any officers for murder, gross negligence manslaughter or any other offence.

Michael Mansfield QC accused the CPS of "usurping the role of a jury" and violating the family's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Jonathan Crow QC, acting for the CPS, called the case "tragic". But he insisted that while he sympathised with the family, the police were acting in self defence.

He told Lord Justice Richards, sitting with Mr Justice Forbes and Mr Justice Mackay: "The fact that something went terribly wrong does not mean there is necessarily any individual criminal culpability."

He described the accusation that the family's human rights had been violated as "unsustainable". But the family's lawyers argued there was "prime facie evidence that the officers were lying" so as to justify what had occurred.

They claimed a "properly directed jury" could have concluded from the evidence that "the officers did not honestly hold the belief" that Mr de Menezes was a suicide bomber about to act.

There was also evidence that the police were not acting in self defence when they killed Mr de Menezes, who was "forced back into his seat and restrained before he was shot", they added.

The judges are being asked to quash a CPS decision not to prosecute any individual officer, but instead prosecute the office of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head by anti-terror officers at Stockwell Tube station in south London on July 22 last year. The CPS investigated the actions of 15 officers involved in the killing of the 27-year-old electrician but decided there was "insufficient evidence" to bring individual prosecutions.

Patricia Armani da Silva, one of Mr de Menezes's cousins, is leading the family's application for a judicial review. She has described the CPS decision as "shameful". Using the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act to prosecute the Metropolitan Police, instead of taking action against individual officers, amounted to "a cover up", she claimed.

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