No charges for Menezes officers

BBC

No police officers will be charged over the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at a Tube station.
But the Met Police will be charged with breaching health and safety laws.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission had asked the CPS, which has yet to make a formal statement, to consider cases against three officers.

Brazilian Mr Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head at Stockwell, south London, on 22 July 2005, after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

Critical report

The IPCC’s report, handed to the CPS in January, was highly critical of the surveillance operation and police control room staff.

A series of organisational failings and communication difficulties had resulted in two experienced marksmen shooting dead an innocent man, it said.

Before the CPS decision was announced, Yasmin Khan, spokeswoman for Mr Menezes’ family, said they would investigate the possibility of a judicial review in the event that no officers were charged.

But Sir Chris Fox, who was chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers at the time of the shooting, said holding people to account had to be done within the existing law of the land.