THREE EMPLOYEES OF security company G4S have been charged with the manslaughter of a man who died as he was being deported from Britain in October 2010.
The English prosecution service today rolled back on a previous decision not to bring charges in relation to the death of Jimmy Mubenga after it examined new evidence in the case.
Jimmy Mubenga died as he was being deported from Britain to his native Angola after being restrained by the three accused on board a plane at Heathrow airport.
Mubenga had been granted leave to stay in England after moving to the country in 1994. However, in 2006 he was convicted of actual bodily harm and sentenced to two years in prison following a brawl in a nightclub. Upon his release, he was transferred to an immigration detention centre and the process of his deportation began.
An inquest into his death found that he had died of cardio-respiratory collapse.
The Crown Prosecution Service said today the the three G4S employees – Colin Kaler, Terrence Hughes and Stuart Tribelnig – are to be prosecuted for manslaughter, following an inquest which returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
“We have completed a fresh review of all of the evidence relating to the death of Jimmy Mubenga, including the new evidence arising from the inquest, and decided that three men should be prosecuted for manslaughter,” said Malcolm Mchaffie, the deputy head of special crime at the Crown Prosectuion Service.
He said that there was “sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction” and that it was “in the public interest” to prosecute.
The Guardian reports that a solicitor for the three men said they would be vigorously denying the charges.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it had decided not to prosecute G4S for corporate manslaughter, noting that such a prosecution would have required evidence that a senior executive in the company was personally guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.
The three men will appear in court on 7 April.
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