20.02.06

LONDON – Police officers are facing criminal charges over allegations that they tampered with vital evidence after shooting dead an innocent Brazilian at a London Underground station.

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) officials investigating the killing of 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes are planning to charge the officers who oversaw the operation with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The disclosure comes three weeks after reports that undercover police deliberately attempted to blame firearms officers for the shooting.

Police surveillance officers allegedly tried to disguise the fact that they had mistaken Menezes for Hussain Osman, the alleged terrorist being hunted for a failed suicide bombing on the Tube.

Now the CPS is planning action over the allegations that the Special Branch surveillance officers took part in the cover-up.

Senior legal sources say that officers who were allegedly involved in altering the log, which detailed the last movements of Menezes, face charges of obstructing public justice or conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

One prosecution source said: "This was a deliberate and obvious attempt to smear the firearms officers."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission report reveals that the log was changed so that it read: "And it was not Osman" instead of "it was Osman". This meant that surveillance officers could claim marksmen shot dead the wrong man.

Senior CPS sources say that the blame for the shooting lies with Special Branch and the surveillance officers who wrongly identified the Brazilian electrician as a suicide bomber.