London police found guilty in killing of innocent man

A British court found London's police force guilty of health and safety violations in the July 2005 incident that saw officers kill Jean Charles de Menezes in a crowded subway station, after they mistakenly identified him as a suicide bomber. The verdict has brought police conduct into question, as well as elicited calls for the resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.

The Times (London) reports that the jury fined the London Metropolitan Police (Met) almost £600,000 ($1.1 million) for endangering the public in the incident that led to the shooting of Mr. Menezes, an innocent Brazilian national.

[The jury] upheld a charge against the Met of breaching its duty to protect the public under health and safety legislation after prosecutors detailed a series of 19 alleged errors in the police operation on July 22, 2005. Mr. de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times by specialist firearms officers who followed him into Stockwell Tube station in South London, mistaking him for Hussain Osman, one of four men who had tried unsuccessfully to launch a suicide attack on London's transport system the day before.

Menezes's death was the result of a chain of errors that the police made just a day after several men attempted to detonate suicide bombs on London buses and subways, reports Reuters. The failed attack was meant to replicate the 7/11 attacks that had killed 52 people in London two weeks before.

De Menezes lived in the same block of flats as one of the failed bombers, Hussein Osman. Surveillance officers monitoring the building followed de Menezes on two bus rides without stopping him before he reached the underground train station. Specialist firearms officers were rushed to the station – after a four-hour delay – when senior officers wrongly became convinced de Menezes was Osman. "No explanation has been forthcoming other than a breakdown in communication. It's been clear from the evidence that the surveillance team never positively identified Mr. De Menezes as a suspect," said Judge Richard Henriques.

Time Magazine writes that the case "highlights the dilemma facing authorities across the world responsible for confronting terror while protecting the rights of innocent citizens." Time adds that the court's ruling leaves unanswered questions of cause and responsibility for Menezes's death.

Despite the verdict, the Brazilian's family and human rights campaigners say the trial failed to answer the question of why de Menezes was killed. The Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence to charge individual officers with the shooting, and instead brought a case under health and safety legislation on the surreal grounds that the police had "failed to provide for the health, safety and welfare" of de Menezes and other members of the public.

The verdict, which laid no individual blame upon police officials, has focused attention upon Metropolitan Police Commissioner Blair, reports The Independent (London). But Blair said he will not step down.

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