Menezes family take case to high court
Jean Charles de Menezes was shot at a time of heightened security in London
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Monday, 16, Oct 2006 06:59
The family of Jean Charles de Menezes are mounting a high court challenge over the decision not to prosecute individual police officers for the shooting of the Brazilian.
The crown prosecution service (CPS) has said that there is "insufficient evidence" to bring a case against any of the individual officers involved in the death of Mr de Menezes, 27, who was shot dead at Stockwell tube station in south London last year, after armed officers mistook the electrician for a suicide bomber.
However, lawyers acting on behalf of Mr de Menezes' family claim that there is sufficient evidence to warrant a trial based on murder or manslaughter charges following the shooting. Mr de Menezes was killed on July 22nd 2005, just a day after four men allegedly failed in an attempt to bomb London's transport network, which was still recovering from four suicide bomb attacks that killed 52 commuters in the capital just two weeks earlier, on July 7th.
The decision by the family to pursue their fight for justice through the high court comes after it was revealed last week that the Metropolitan police force would face a trial under health and safety charges.
The Metropolitan Police Authority had written to the attorney general expressing "grave concerns" about the prosecution and claiming that it would delay the report of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into the shooting of Mr de Menezes, but Lord Goldsmith ruled that the legal action against the force as a whole should go ahead.
In papers to be lodged at the high court calling for a judicial review, lawyers for the De Menezes family claim that the decision not to pursue a case against any of the individual police officers involved amounts to a breach of their human rights.
The failure of the IPCC to publish its report on the shooting and the decision to adjourn the inquest into Mr de Menezes' death are also being challenged by the family.
The family's lawyer, Harriet Wistrich, claimed that the CPS' handling of the case gave an "appearance of a stitch-up".
"In respect of the decision not to prosecute any individual officers we consider the CPS has usurped the role of the jury in its assessment of the evidence," she said.
"In respect of the decision to seek adjournment of the inquest and to ask the IPCC not to disclose their report to the family, the CPS's uncompromising approach gives the appearance of a stitch-up."