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The Guardian // World // Europe

‘We didn’t want to avoid the reality of what happened’: the drama telling the true story of Jean Charles de Menezes

Monday 21st April 2025, 10:00AM

The 2005 shooting of the Brazilian created national headlines, but the shocking truth of his death remains unknown by many. A new series aims to do justice to his story – and those who fought to clear his nameOn 22 July 2005, 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes was shot and killed by firearms officers on the London underground shortly after boarding a train. The information relayed by the Metropolitan police at the time was that he had leapt over the ticket barriers at Stockwell station and was wearing a bulky coat under which officers thought he was hiding a bomb.The incident occurred two weeks after the 7/7 bombings on London’s transport network, where 52 people were killed, and the day after a copycat attack in which four men tried – and mercifully failed – to detonate devices on three underground trains and a bus; the bombers in the latter incidents fled the scene, triggering a police manhunt. It later emerged that De Menezes was innocent and the intelligence on him was flawed. But such was the impact of that early narrative – the one where his actions and appearance made him seem guilty at a time when police were on high alert – that, 20 years on, it is still what most people remember. Continue reading...

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