Rights case ‘could leave gun police paralysed’
ARMED policing in Britain could become paralysed if human rights judges rule officers should have been prosecuted for killing Jean Charles de Menezes, ministers fear.
Whitehall insiders say a case brought against the UK at the European Court of Human Rights yesterday by the family of the dead Brazilian could have ‘monumental’ implications.
In the worst-case scenario, police marksmen would be left afraid to stop a terrorist suspect for fear of a legal challenge in the Strasbourg court.
Mr de Menezes was shot at Stockwell tube station in the immediate aftermath of the July 7 and July 21 terror attacks, in 2005.
Police, who feared he was a suicide bomber, followed him on to an underground train and shot him dead at point-blank range. The Crown Prosecution Service ruled out prosecuting the officers responsible in 2006, saying there was not a ‘realistic prospect of a conviction’.
In a hearing yesterday, lawyers for the de Menezes family claimed it was a breach of human rights for the CPS not to charge anybody with murder.
Their case centres on Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires the Government to carry out an independent investigation into all deaths caused by the State. The family claim the ‘realistic prospect of conviction’ test applied by the CPS is too high a threshold and therefore denied them the right to a proper investigation.
If they are successful, Government insiders say it would force the CPS to rip up the rule book for deciding when police marksmen and other State officials should be charged with murder or manslaughter.
Prosecutors could have to put State officials on trial even when they think pursuing a case is not in the public interest. This, in turn, could have a chilling effect on our armed police officers.
A senior Government source told the Mail: ‘This decision, if it goes against us, could have monumental implications. It would be far bigger than prisoner votes. You’d be talking about the European Court dismantling the way the CPS operates.’
They added: ‘The big decisions they make on the police discharging firearms, prosecutions not being in the public interest. They could all be challenged in the courts.’
At yesterday’s hearing, UK Government QC Clare Montgomery told the court that while the officers had failed in their ‘duty of care’ to 27year- old Mr de Menezes, none of their mistakes ‘amounted to gross negligence or manslaughter’.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court reserved judgment yesterday. If the verdict goes against us, it is likely to renew demands for ministers to remove the UK from the court’s jurisdiction altogether.
‘Monumental implications’