De Menezes officers ‘lied about shooting’

Stewart Tendler

The police marksmen who killed Jean Charles de Menezes may have lied about the death of the Brazilian during the botched operation, the High Court was told yesterday.

They had claimed that Mr de Menezes was wearing a bulky jacket when, in fact, he had on a denim one. They also claimed that they had shouted a warning, but none of the other passengers on the London Underground train heard them.

The details of the policemen’s claims were revealed as the dead man’s family began an application for a judicial review into the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute anyone over the shooting in July 2005.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head by two officers after he was wrongly linked with the bungled terrorist attacks on the London transport system the day before.

Opening the family’s case, Michael Mansfield, QC, told Lord Justice Richards, sitting with Mr Justice Forbes and Mr Justice Mackay, that the decision not to charge any officers was “a violation” of the human rights of the de Menezes family. He said that Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights required an adequate trial or inquiry to “deter life-endangering conduct in future”.

Jonathan Crow, QC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions and the CPS, called the family’s human rights argument unsustainable. He added that, as far as a prosecution was concerned, a “judgment call” had to be made.

The hearing continues today.