BRITAIN: The London police officers involved in the fatal shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes could face criminal charges, it was revealed yesterday
An independent inquiry into his death is set to conclude that criminal offences may have taken place and it will be up to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether charges should follow.
The inquiry report, by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, is "likely" to be sent to the CPS when completed in January, said its chair Nick Hardwick. He would not detail the nature of the alleged offences which the CPS could potentially have to consider, although it is believed they could be as serious as manslaughter.
If the IPCC decides there may have been criminality, its report will include a list of the alleged offences, each attached to the names of individual officers.
But PC Norman Brennan, head of the police campaign group Protect the Protectors, said: "If it is found that the officers involved in the shooting acted in the honest belief that they were trying to prevent another terrorist attack, then there should be no charges made against them."
Mr Hardwick revealed that his investigators had not interviewed Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair during their inquiry into the shooting - a decision which the Tories branded "inexplicable". He admitted the delay in the IPCC taking over the inquiry had damaged the public's perception of the investigation.
There was anger from the de Menezes family campaign group, who said they were "dismayed" that the IPCC had held a media briefing. "We have supported the IPCC and the family have always accepted that the IPCC investigation would remain confidential," a spokesman said.
However, the IPCC said it had not commented on the facts of the case and had only explained the process.
Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head by anti-terror officers at Stockwell Tube station after being mistaken for a suicide bomber in July.
PA