Death of Jean Charles de Menezes - The Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign

The Jean Charles De Menezes Family Campaign

On 16 August 2005, the Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign, also known as 'Justice4Jean', began calling for a public inquiry into the "unlawful killing" of Menezes.

As there has been no legal process to assess the lawfulness or otherwise of the killing, critics argue that the Campaign's first aim to "find out the truth about Jean’s unlawful killing" reflects a prejudging of the issue. Critics such as Conservative London Assemblyman Brian Coleman have suggested that the involvement of Asad Rehman, a former leader of the Stop the War Coalition and former adviser to George Galloway, MP, in the campaign shows that the family's campaign had been "hijacked" and the death of Menezes was being used to "advance a political aim." Galloway's secretary said that Rehman had been acting in "a personal capacity, … not in his role as political adviser", and Menezes family members Alessandro Pereira and Vivien Figueiredo denied any manipulation.

The family campaign organised three events in 2005:

• On 29 July, a vigil in Parliament Square and a multi-faith memorial service at Westminster Cathedral were held at the same time as Menezes's funeral in Brazil.
• On 22 August, a petition asking for a public inquiry was delivered to Downing Street by Menezes family member Alessandro Pereira and members of Justice4Jean. The protestors made their way from Downing Street to Scotland Yard, together with the relatives of Paul Coker and Azelle Rodney, individuals who also died in London police incidents in 2005.
• On 10 October, the campaign was launched at the London School of Economics with Menezes's parents, the family lawyer Gareth Peirce, Bianca Jagger, Matthew Taylor MP and Irene Khan from Amnesty International.

The family and their campaign continue to be actively supported by Newham Monitoring Project; on 22 July 2007 they held a minute of silence outside Stockwell Tube station to commemorate the second anniversary of Menezes's death. Two days earlier the campaign projected a massive image, 20m × 30m, of Menezes's face with the slogan "Two Years, No Justice" on the walls of the Houses of Parliament. The campaign set up a blog for the duration of the inquest starting on 22 September 2008 and released a pre-inquest briefing.