UK: Officials representing London's Metropolitan Police force were due in court yesterday in connection with the fatal shooting of a Brazilian man mistaken for a suicide-bomber.
Scotland Yard has been charged under health and safety laws over the death of Jean Charles de Menezes (27) at Stockwell underground station in south London in July last year.
Prosecutors say that officers involved in the bungled operation, who will not face charges individually, failed to provide for the health, safety and welfare of Mr de Menezes.
An attempt by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), the body that oversees the force, to have the case thrown out was rejected on Thursday. The MPA said that the matter had been reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Attorney General, and a decision had been taken to go ahead with the case.
Mr de Menezes was shot eight times, seven times in the head and once in the shoulder, in the carriage of an underground train on the morning of July 22nd last year. The incident occurred the day after detectives said four men had tried to set off bombs on three underground trains and on a bus in an attempt to copy the deadly suicide-bombings of July 7th 2005 in which four Islamists killed 52 commuters.
Police officials told a court last month that they would be pleading not guilty to one charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
London's police chief, Sir Ian Blair, has been heavily criticised over the shooting and the Brazilian man's family say that those involved should have faced charges. However, the CPS said there was insufficient evidence to charge individual officers, a decision condemned by the de Menezes family as "shameful".