No charges over Jean Charles de Menezes shooting was the right decision, ECHR rules

Shot dead by police: Jean Charles de Menezes
Hatty Collier30 March 2016

Prosecutors were right not to charge police officers over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in the wake of the 7/7 attacks in London, the European Court of Human Rights ruled today.

Brazilian electrician Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head by specialist firearms officers as he boarded an underground train at Stockwell station in south London on July 22, 2005 amid a climate of heightened terror alertness on the streets of London.

After he was killed, police apologised and said his death was a "tragedy." The IPCC immediately launched an investigation but no charges were brought against any individual police officers.

The Met was fined £175,000 for breaching health and safety laws.

The family of Mr de Menezes claimed his shooting breached Article 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights which covers the right to life.

They claimed the authorities should have carried out a more thorough investigation as to whether the force they used was justified given the circumstances.

However, in a judgment on Wednesday the Strasbourg court's Grand Chamber found that UK authorities had not failed in their obligations to conduct an effective investigation.

Jean Charles de Menezes

1/11

56 people, including the four suicide bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Germaine Lindsay, 19 , and Hasib Hussain, 18, were killed in the attacks on London's transport network.

Mr de Menezes's cousin Patricia da Silva Armani said the family were "deeply disappointed" by the ruling.

She said: "We had hoped that the ruling would give a glimmer of hope, not only to us, but to all other families who have been denied the right to justice after deaths at the hands of the police.

"We find it unbelievable that our innocent cousin could be shot seven times in the head by the Metropolitan Police when he had done nothing wrong and yet the police have not had to account for their actions.

"As we have always maintained, we feel that decisions about guilt and innocence should be made by juries, not by faceless bureaucrats and we are deeply saddened that we have been denied that opportunity yet again."

Lawyers for the family claimed the evidential test applied by the Crown Prosecution Service - that there should be sufficient evidence for a "realistic prospect" of conviction - is too high a threshold.

It means that, in effect, the decision not to bring a prosecution was based on a conclusion that there was less than a 50 per cent chance of conviction, they argued.

The Strasbourg court said: "The frustration of Mr de Menezes's family at the absence of any individual prosecutions is understandable."

However, its judgment concluded that "it cannot be said that the domestic authorities have failed to discharge the procedural obligation under Article 2 of the Convention to conduct an effective investigation into the shooting of Mr de Menezes which was capable of leading to the establishment of the facts, a determination of whether the force used was or was not justified in the circumstances and of identifying and - if appropriate - punishing those responsible".

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in