WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-14 Time: 13:00:06 Posted By: Jan
By Mark Hughes
Jean Charles de Menezes was not lawfully killed as part of an anti-terrorist operation, a jury decided on Friday, rejecting the British police’s account of how the Brazilian died as not to be trusted.
Returning an open verdict at the end of the 12-week inquest, the jurors contradicted evidence given by seven firearms and surveillance officers when they answered a series of 13 questions put to them by the coroner.
In particular, they said they refused to believe that the first officer to open fire, codenamed C12, had shouted a warning of “armed police” first. They also rejected the officer’s claim that the Brazilian had walked towards him.
De Menezes died on July 22, 2005, aged 27, after police mistook him for a terrorist and shot him seven times in the head.
The coroner, Sir Michael Wright, had already stopped the jury from returning a verdict of unlawful killing, leaving open and lawful killing verdicts as the only possibilities.
By returning an open verdict they heaped even more pressure on the Metropolitan Police by highlighting the inadequacies in the surveillance team’s operation, the communications between teams, and, most damagingly, the accounts given by its officers.
The Friday verdict, after seven days of deliberation, prompted the De Menezes family to call for the officers who claimed to have shouted the warning to be investigated for perjury.
Harriet Wistrich, the solicitor representing the family, alleged that some officers had committed perjury.
However, law experts said the possibility of charges being brought was unlikely as the jurors’ responses to the questions do not make it clear whether they think the officers lied, or were simply mistaken.
After the verdict, a statement, read on behalf of De Menezes’s mother Maria Otone de Menezes, said she was pleased with the result.
“I am very happy with the verdict. Since the moment the coroner ruled out unlawful killing, I was feeling very sad. But today I feel reborn.”
It is now widely expected that the family will seek another judicial review over the omission of the unlawful killing verdict. And they plan to lobby MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee to hold an inquiry.
De Menezes’s cousin, Patricia da Silva, said: “I can only say that we will carry on with the struggle.”
Friday’s 8-2 majority verdict and questionnaire answers are highly damaging to the Metropolitan Police.
The De Menezes saga has already lasted three-and-a-half years and contributed to Sir Ian Blair’s resignation. Now the focus is likely to turn to other senior officers who were in charge that day, with Deputy Assistant Commissioners Cressida Dick and John McDowall the main sources of ire.
Sir Paul Stephenson, the acting commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said the force accepted “full responsibility” for De Menezes’s death, adding: “The death of Jean Charles de Menezes was a tragedy.
He was an innocent man and we must, and do, accept full responsibility. For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is something that the Metropolitan Police Service deeply regrets. In the face of enormous challenges faced by officers on that day, we made a most terrible mistake. I am sorry.”
The most damaging of all the jury’s assertions was that firearms officer C12 did not shout “armed police”.
During evidence four firearms officers were adamant that a call was made. They were backed by three of their surveillance team colleagues – all of whom said the same.
But six witnesses who were in the carriage on the day De Menezes was shot said they heard nothing. The jury agreed with their accounts.
They also rejected C12’s claim that De Menezes had walked towards him before he opened fire. During the inquest, C12 said De Menezes walking towards him was the main reason he decided to open fire.
– The Independent.