U.K. Police Deny Breaking Law Over Terror Shooting, Court Hears

By Nick Allen
Bloomberg
Sep. 19, 2006

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- London's Metropolitan Police denied breaching a health and safety law when its officers shot dead an innocent Brazilian electrician who was mistaken for a suicide bomber.

Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was gunned down by police on the London Underground on July 22, 2005. Police subsequently established that he was innocent and had no connection to terrorism.

The shooting happened a day after an alleged attempt to cause explosions on the London transport system and two weeks after the July 7, 2005, attacks which killed 56 people, including four suicide bombers, on three underground trains and a bus.

The police force was charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The force is alleged by prosecutors to have failed to ensure the health and safety of de Menezes.

A formal plea of not guilty was entered in front of senior district judge Timothy Workman at London's City of Westminster Magistrates Court today, the police force said in an e-mailed statement.

The case was adjourned until the next hearing on Jan. 16 at the Central Criminal Court, commonly known as the Old Bailey. The force faces an unlimited fine if found guilty.

At the time of the shooting police were operating a controversial policy called Operation Kratos, which was developed after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. and authorized officers to shoot suspected suicide bombers.

De Menezes was shot seven times in the head by anti- terrorist officers at Stockwell Tube station in south London. The incident was investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The Crown Prosecution Service then decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute any individual police officer and to pursue the health and safety case against the police force as a whole.

The mistaken shooting happened in the ``extraordinarily difficult circumstances'' of July 22, 2005, and there were ``compelling evidential grounds'' to defend the case, the Metropolitan Police said following its Not Guilty plea today.

It also questioned whether a law drafted more than 30 years ago, to protect employees in the workplace, was the right way to evaluate the actions of police officers in an emergency situation.

Last week Commander Cressida Dick, a senior officer who was involved in events on the day of the shooting, was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, the Metropolitan Police Authority announced Sept. 12.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nick Allen in London at [email protected]