I encourage readers to read through the links which give details of misrepresentations by officials about the facts about the De Menezes death.

The death of Jean Charles de Menezes was not due to any lack of language skills or misunderstanding on his part. He did not fail to understand police instructions, he was not challenged. He did not run away, he did not know he was being followed. There was no attempt to arrest him. His behaviour was normal. He wore light clothing and was not carrying a bag, he was concealing nothing. He rose from his seat to leave the underground train, along with the other passengers, and in cold blood a wholly innocent young man was shot dead.

All eight undercover officers at the scene say they shouted “armed police”, all seventeen independent witnesses in or near the carriage say they heard nothing of the sort. The trial jury heard that the police gunmen almost shot one of their own colleagues and a gun was pointed at the head of the uniformed train driver. The guilty verdict on Health and Safety charges was hardly surprising.

This certainly was no ‘accident’. Jean Charles de Menezes was not given the least possible chance. He may have been mistaken for a terrorist bomber of the day before but at no point in the operation was identification verified. Armed officers could not have credibly believed he was about to detonate an invisible, undetectable (non- existent) bomb.

No individual officers have been charged.