UK officers won't face charges over metro shooting

Reuters.com
UK officers won't face charges over metro shooting
Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:27 AM ET

By Gideon Long

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LONDON (Reuters) - British police officers who shot dead an innocent Brazilian in London last year in the mistaken belief he was a suicide bomber will not face criminal charges, state prosecutors said on Monday.

Instead, in a move described by the victim's family as "ridiculous", London's Metropolitan Police force will be prosecuted under health and safety laws, more usually used to resolve minor incidents in the work place.

Monday's ruling by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) relates to the killing on July 22, 2005, of Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian who was living in London.

Police officers, believing him to be a suicide bomber, shot him seven times in the head after he boarded a London underground train.

The shooting came amid frenzy in London over the threat of suicide attacks. Just 15 days earlier, four British Islamists had blown themselves up on underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people.

In Monday's long-awaited decision, the CPS said the two officers who killed de Menezes thought he was about to blow up the train.

"The evidence supports their claim that they genuinely believed Mr de Menezes was a suicide bomber," it said.

SHAMEFUL DECISION

The de Menezes family ridiculed the decision.

"I'm very disappointed," said Patricia da Silva Armani, a cousin of the victim. "I think this is shameful."

London's police force said it was disappointed by the CPS move to press charges under health and safety laws and city mayor Ken Livingstone said it made "absolutely no sense".

"I doubt that al Qaeda will be considering the implications for health and safety legislation when they are planning their terrorist activities," he said.

The circumstances of the shooting have been hotly disputed and the Brazilian has become a martyr figure for campaigners who accuse police of ignoring civil rights in their crackdown on terrorist suspects.

In the days following the shooting, newspapers printed what they said were eyewitness accounts claiming de Menezes vaulted a barrier at the station and ran down an escalator.

They also claimed he wore a bulky coat which could have been hiding a bomb.

Those claims have since been discredited and it is now widely accepted de Menezes walked into the station, went calmly to the platform and walked on to the train.

London police chief Ian Blair has been heavily criticised over the shooting and remains under pressure to resign.

That pressure was fueled by another botched police operation in June when police shot and injured an innocent Muslim man in a raid on his East London house.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland and Adrian Croft)