Menezes jurors resume deliberations

12 April 2012

The jury in the inquest of Jean Charles de Menezes is resuming its deliberations after relatives of the Brazilian staged a courtroom protest.

Cousins of the 27-year-old, shot dead by police, stood up in front of the jurors and unveiled T-shirts displaying the message: "Your legal right to decide - unlawful killing verdict."

Coroner Sir Michael Wright had earlier directed the jurors they could return only a verdict of lawful killing or an open verdict.

The legal team of the family of Jean Charles de Menezes has also withdrawn from the inquest into the Brazilian's death.

Michael Mansfield QC, the barrister representing the Menezes family, and his junior, Henrietta Hill, were absent from court when the jury returned to hear the coroner complete his summing up.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot dead by police marksmen at Stockwell Tube station in south London on July 22 2005 after being mistaken for failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

The coroner's ruling out of unlawful killing leaves the jury with a straight choice between lawful killing or an open verdict.

He told the jurors to cast aside "any emotion" over the innocent Brazilian's shooting after hearing more than seven weeks of evidence.

The jurors will then rule whether a string of additional factors - including identification, photographs, communications and orders issued from the control room at New Scotland Yard - caused or contributed to the death of Mr de Menezes.

They will have to decide whether differences in police officers' accounts were caused by "failure of recollection" or by "misunderstandings and failures of communication" at the time, the coroner said.

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