Met in dock over de Menezes
Updated on 01 October 2007
The family of Jean Charles de Menezes arrived at the Old Bailey this morning to see Metropolitan Police officers put in the dock, charged with exposing members of the public, including the Brazilian man, to risk as they conducted an undercover operation.
His family want someone to be punished for his death. The 27-year-old was shot in south London in July 2005.
Undercover officers had followed him from an address and mistakenly identified him as attempted suicide bomber Hussain Osman.
As he went through Stockwell tube station and onto a train police thought he was about to launch a suicide attack and gunned him down, shooting him nine to 10 times.
But the firearms officers who pulled the trigger will not be called to court. And instead of the criminal trial the victim's family had called for, this case is about failure in health and safety.
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Sir Ian Blair, is named in the indictment although he also will not be called.
But the prosecution is intending to call 54 serving police officers, and to release new video evidence. This includes CCTV footage from the bus de Menezes took to the station and from inside the underground itself.
The force denies the charge. The trial is expected to last six weeks.
