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Menezes shooting: open verdict

By Channel 4 News

Updated on 12 December 2008

A jury rejects many key police claims at the inquest into the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

The 10-person jury today returned an open verdict on the death of the Brazilian engineer rather than the alternative option of lawful killing.

The coroner, Sir Michael Wright, had told the jury they could not return a verdict of unlawful killing as this would contradict a previous ruling.

The jury rejected key elements of the police's account of day, including a firearms officer's claim that he shouted "armed police" before opening fire the Brazilian.

They accepted police claims that Mr de Menezes stood up in the carriage, but rejected the claim that he had moved closer to a surveillance officer who grabbed him in a bear hug, before being shot.

De Menezes family statement

"It is clear the jury could have gone further if they had not been gagged by the coroner."

The jury concluded that six of nine factors they were asked to consider contributed to his death:

Met Police: Sir Paul Stephenson responds

"He was an innocent man and we must, and do, accept full responsibility for his death."

They rejected suggestions that the innocent behaviour of Mr de Menezes, which increased the suspicions of some officers, played a part.

They also decided the general difficulty in providing an identification of the man under surveillance in the time available and in the circumstances after he had left the block at Scotia Road had not played a part in the killing.

The jury could not decide whether pressure on the Met in the wake of the suicide and attempted terror attacks in July 2005 caused or contributed to his death.

IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick responds

"I call again for this to have much broader debate and scrutiny by the public and their parliamentary representatives."

Jurors heard from 100 witnesses, including the two men who shot dead the innocent Brazilian at point-blank range on a carriage at Stockwell station on 22 July 2005, two weeks after London was rocked by the 7/7 bombings.

On 21 July a second gang of Islamist extremists attempted to murder dozens more with home-made rucksack bombs.

As counter-terrorist police scoured the capital for the escaped would-be suicide bombers, Mr De Menezes was mistaken for one of them and shot dead.

The latest inquest is the first time the public was given a full account of the incident from key witnesses on board the Underground carriage where the shooting took place.

C2 and C12, the two firearms officers who shot the electrician, both choked back tears as they appeared at the inquest at Surrey County Cricket Club's home ground in south London.

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