The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is considering charging Britain's most senior police officer over the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, mistakenly taken to be a terrorist.
The London Metropolitan Police (known as the Met) Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and two senior commanders in control of the operation that culminated in de Menezes's death have been named in the final analysis of the shooting by the CPS.
If the CPS goes ahead with the dramatic move, which one source said was "likely", it would make Blair's position untenable. The other two "named individuals" are Commander Cressida Dick, who oversaw the operation that led to the shooting of 27-year-old de Menezes at a London subway station last July, and Commander John McDowall, who was in overall charge of intelligence and surveillance for the Met. They may face prosecution for breaching health and safety laws after claims that Scotland Yard's chain of command failed in "its duty of care" towards the public of London.
Crown prosecutors are also understood to be examining whether to bring a more serious charge of gross negligence manslaughter against the trio, again over allegations that they breached their duty of care towards a member of the public.
The revelations come as Blair faces fresh questions over a terrorist raid in London on Friday in which a young Muslim man, Abul Kahar Kalam, was shot and his brother, Abul Koyair Kalam, was arrested. The Independent Police Complaints Commission have launched an inquiry into the shooting.
In a statement yesterday, a member of the Abul Kahar Kalam's family, who did not wish to be named, said: "My family members and I were physically assaulted. I received head injuries that required hospital treatment. We were detained for 12 hours."
Abul Kahar Kalam is still under armed guard at a London hospital. His brother is being held by police.
Until now, it had been widely assumed that the CPS was only examining the possibility of charges against the police officers who were involved in the actual shooting of de Menezes. Instead the CPS, in a dramatic twist, has found that the senior figures in Scotland Yard's chain of command could be most culpable.
With Crown prosecutors four-month review of a report by the commission into the shooting of de Menezes close to completion, a final decision on possible charges is expected to be made by Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald, within the next fortnight.
De Menezes, an electrician, was shot seven times after he boarded a train at Stockwell subway station in south London a day after the failed 21 July suicide attacks in the capital.
He had been targeted by police after being identified, wrongly, as a suspected suicide bomber.
Police have been accused of communication failures and creating confusion. Witness statements suggested that de Menezes had done nothing to arouse the suspicion of the officers trailing him that day
More damaging to Scotland Yard, though, is the revelation that the CPS is considering a charge of gross negligence manslaughter.
Crown prosecutors must decide whether the "breach of the duty of care by the accused [senior Met officers] was so great as to be characterized as gross negligence and therefore a crime," according to a CPS briefing note.
When considering charges, crown prosecutors must consider whether they are in the public interest, whether they pass the evidential test and also whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction.
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