Tube shooting tantamount to ‘state execution’, say Lib Dems
The tube shooting of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes has been labelled a “state execution” by Liberal Democrat Matthew Taylor.
Mr Taylor, the former chairman and Treasury spokesman, said the apparent shoot-to-kill policy had led to Mr de Menezes’ “unacceptable” death.
Police shot Mr de Menezes seven times in the head on a London Underground train in Stockwell, south London, after mistaking him for a suicide bomber.
Mr Taylor said the death was a result of eroded civil liberties in the current heightened anti-terrorism climate.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently carrying out a probe into the death.
Mr Taylor told a fringe meeting at the Lib Dem conference in Blackpool: “I am not prepared to stand by in a country that takes the decision to allow state execution on the basis of suspicion, even suspicion of mass terrorism.
“Tracking an innocent man, bear-hugging him on the tube, pulling him up without even presenting your credentials as a policeman and shooting him seven times on the basis of suspicion is unacceptable.
“I wouldn’t be convinced if there were five dead terrorists and one dead innocent man. The truth is we have one dead innocent man and not a single success to show for this so-called policy.
“It is wrong. It is fundamentally wrong.”
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights campaign group Liberty, yesterday accused the government of “dismantling” the British constitution to protect people from terrorism.
For a list of Opinion Former fringe events click here.
