Menezes police may face charges

An inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes has said prosecutors should consider charging three police officers, the BBC has learned.

The Crown Prosecution Service has been asked to look at bringing manslaughter charges against a senior Scotland Yard officer and two firearms officers.
...
Prosecutors have been considering an Independent Police Complaints Commission report since January.

The Crown Prosecution Service will announce its decision on Monday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5177480.stm

NO POLICE officer will be tried over the Stockwell shooting, but Scotland Yard is expected to face charges under health and safety laws.

The decision will bring fresh embarrassment for Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. A trial at the Old Bailey would air publicly the failings of the operation in which Jean Charles de Menezes died and how the force is run under Sir Ian’s command.

According to Whitehall sources, the Crown Prosecution Service will announce on Monday that Scotland Yard will be prosecuted for failing in its “duty of care” towards Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian who was killed on July 22 last year in a botched counter-terrorist operation. Sir Ian would receive the summons on behalf of the force. He would not be in the dock but he and many other senior officers could face cross-examination.

One senior officer said that such a charge would be “outrageous” and that the Metropolitan Police would fight it furiously in court. Commanders have always maintained that Scotland Yard faced an unprecedented emergency on the day that Mr de Menezes died.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2271203,00.html

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man shot dead by police, are preparing to take legal action in a campaign for murder or manslaughter charges to be brought against officers involved in the killing.

Supporters of Mr Menezes said they may also bring a private prosecution against Metropolitan Police officers if the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not charge them.

The warnings came as the CPS was due to disclose on Monday whether any officers would face criminal charges for the incident in which the 27-year-old electrician was shot seven times in the head on a Tube train at Stockwell station in south London. It looks increasingly likely that the CPS will clear the officers involved, but may use health and safety laws to prosecute the Metropolitan Police.

Campaigners for Mr Menezes have hired the leading barrister Michael Mansfield QC and said that he would ask for a judicial review of any decision not to bring manslaughter or murder charges. The legal action would be an attempt to force the CPS to disclose the full details of an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into the shooting.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1178561.ece