Police officers who shot and killed an innocent Brazilian mistaken for a suicide bomber will not face criminal charges, prosecutors said yesterday.
However, the department of London's Metropolitan Police that employs the officers would be prosecuted for violating health and safety laws, prosecutors said.
Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was killed by police on a London subway train on July 22 last year.
Stephen O'Doherty, senior lawyer from the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division, which decides whether there is enough evidence to prosecute, said there was no realistic prospect of convicting any individual.
"I concluded that while a number of individuals had made errors in planning and communication, and the cumulative result was the tragic death of Mr de Menezes, no individual had been culpable to the degree necessary for a criminal offense," he said.
"The two officers who fired the fatal shots did so because they thought that Mr de Menezes had been identified to them as a suicide bomber and that if they did not shoot him, he would blow up the train, killing many people," he said.
Asad Rehman, speaking for the Justice4Jean campaign group, said the family "will be very, very disappointed if no officers are held to account for their actions.
"The family do not think health and safety regulations are an appropriate way to hold the police accountable over this issue," Rehman said. "They will be considering all their legal options to ensure that somebody is answerable in a court of law."
The shooting occurred two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 commuters on three subway trains and a bus, and a day after a similar but failed set of attacks.
Police, who have apologized for the killing, said later they had mistaken de Menezes for one of the suspects in the failed attacks.
"In order to prosecute those officers, we would have to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that they did not honestly and genuinely hold those beliefs. In fact, the evidence supports their claim that they genuinely believed that Mr de Menezes was a suicide bomber and therefore, as we cannot disprove that claim, we cannot prosecute them for murder or any other related offense," O'Doherty said.
He added that "operational errors" indicated there had been a breach of duties owed to the public under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by the Office of Commissioner of Police.
"I have authorized a prosecution under that Act," he said. "I must stress that this is not a prosecution of [the commissioner] Sir Ian Blair in his personal capacity, but will be a prosecution of the Office of Commissioner, as the deemed employer of the Metropolitan Police officers involved in the death of Mr de Menezes."
Jan Berry, chairman of the Police Federation, called the decision "just, fair and difficult."
"We must never forget the hurt and devastation caused to the de Menezes family by the tragic and fatal shooting of Jean Charles last year," Berry said. "This tragedy took place at an unprecedented time for British policing and in the wake of a new and unrivaled terrorist threat."
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