‘THIS is a disgraceful decision,’ the family of murdered Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes said yesterday, after the High Court rejected their appeal against the decision not to prosecute the police who shot him last year.
A statement was read out by Patricia da Silva Armani, the cousin of Jean Charles, outside the court in central London.
‘Today is a sad day for my family. I am heartbroken,’ she said.
‘We believe the judges came to the wrong decision.
‘We were shocked to hear all the new evidence that was revealed in court over the two-day hearing.
‘We heard how the police made mistake after mistake on the day they killed my cousin.
‘We do not understand how the police can kill an innocent person and not a single person is held responsible for it. It is disgraceful.
‘We will appeal this decision to the House of Lords.
‘Our fight will never stop. We will continue fighting for justice until someone is held responsible for my cousin’s murder.’
Electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, who was on his way to work, was held down in his seat at Stockwell tube and shot seven times through the head at point blank range by armed police on July 22 last year.
The High Court rejected his family’s judicial review of the Crown Prosecution Service decision not to bring any prosecutions against individual officers for any offences.
Lawyer Harriet Wistrich said it was ‘appalling’ if ‘you can’t even get a prosecution in a case like this, where the evidence is so grotesque . . . how are the police ever going to be held accountable?’
Alex Pereira, another cousin of Jean Charles, said: ‘The police behaved just like criminals.
‘Now every party says they are innocent – the IPCC, CPS, now the judge. So what happened to Jean: he “hit his head and died’’ – “it was an accident’’ – “a train crash’’!?!
‘This is shameful. I think the police are the power and the courts just follow what the police said.’
