The Associated Press
LONDON- The trial of London’s police force over allegations that it breached health and safety laws last year during the fatal shooting of a commuter who officers mistook for a suspected suicide bomber will not be heard until next year, a court said Friday.
Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, a Brazilian electrician, was killed aboard a subway train by anti-terrorist officers, believing him to be a suspected suicide bomber they were tailing on July 22, 2005.
A day earlier, four suspected suicide bombers attempted to attack London’s transit system, failing to detonate any of their charges.
The attempts came two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 commuters when they detonated backpacks full of explosives on three subway cars and a bus.
After a protracted inquiry into the death, British prosecutors agreed there was enough evidence to charge the force for failing to protect the dead man’s health and safety. However, no charges were brought against any individual officers involved in the fatal shooting.
The force is due to apply for the charges against it to be dismissed at a pretrial hearing early next year.
Keith Morton, representing the police, told a preliminary hearing at a London criminal court that the case “has implications for the police, not only in London but across Britain.
“The allegations against the defendant are numerous and will not be restricted to the examination of events over the course of a few hours on one day in July last year,” he said.
To set a trial date before autumn next year for a case of “this magnitude” would be unrealistic, he said.
London’s Central Criminal court said the trial would not be heard until next October.
The force pleaded not guilty to the charges last month. An attempt by the police to have the case dismissed was rejected earlier this week.