On the twentieth anniversary of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, Shabbir Lakha reviews a recently-aired TV series looking at the police operation and cover-up

Suspect, a recently-aired four-episode series on Disney+ looks at the police operation that cut short the life of Jean Charles de Menezes. It is a tense drama, disturbing to watch at times, but which brings to light the realities of police violence, racism and cover-up.

In  the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings and then a botched attempt to repeat the attacks two weeks later, the Met Police launched a manhunt to find the four attempted-suicide bombers.

They activated a shoot-to-kill policy known as Operation Kratos. On 22 July 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician, exited his block of flats which was under surveillance by the Met police who believed one of the four suspects resided there. Despite not positively identifying de Menezes as one of the suspects, they proceeded to pursue him into Stockwell tube station and onto a train, where he was then held down and shot 7 times in the head.

Suspect presents a thorough examination of the events, taking into account the pressure on the Met Police. It shows nonetheless that there was no justification for the killing of de Menezes in what his cousin described as an ‘execution’.

Even less so for the attempted cover-up. Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair helped concoct a false media narrative which suggested de Menezes was acting suspiciously, wearing a ‘bulky jacket’, had jumped the barriers at the station and squared up to the armed officers who had identified themselves.

In actual fact, none of this was true. The facts were only revealed by a leak from the IPCC who were initially denied access to the crime scene for several days. The Met’s priorities were clear though: the family’s justice campaign set up shortly afterwards was immediately spied on by at least one undercover officer.

At the inquest, the Met Police continued to lie and presented a composite photo comparing de Menezes with one of the suspects, Osman Hussein, which was revealed to be doctored to make them look more alike. The coroner did not let the jury return an ‘unlawful killing’ verdict, denying any possibility of justice.

The series doesn’t focus on the link with Britain’s wars in the Middle East and the Islamophobia it generated, but it is present. One of the attempted suicide-bombers remarks, “we call it jihad, they call it foreign policy”. The officer who first suspected Jean Charles de Menezes said it was because he had “Mongolian eyes”. The Operation Kratos tactics were developed with consultation from Israeli and Sri Lankan security forces. The SO19 firearms officers that killed de Menezes were reportedly trained by the SAS.

Cressida Dick who was Gold Commander of the operation was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner and in 2017 to Commissioner. During her five years as head of the force, she ramped up Met Police use of racially-profiling stop-and-search and facial recognition and presided over the violent attack by officers at the Sarah Everard vigil in 2021.

Fast-forward to the present day, and we are meant to believe that the Met Police were lawful in killing Chris Kaba, or are the best adjudicators of racism when they harass and arrest Palestine protesters. A force with a consistent track record of racial profiling, killing, sexually harassing women; of lying, spying and covering up its actions; and of promoting through its ranks those responsible. Suspect, though enraging to watch, lays bare why this is nonsense that we must reject.