Jimmy Mubenga Was Killed Unlawfully While Being Deported, Inquest Finds

Prosecutors to Reinvestigate Death Of Asylum Seeker
Jimmy Mubenga with his wife Adrienne Makenda Kambana
Jimmy Mubenga with his wife Adrienne Makenda Kambana
PA

Prosecutors are to reconsider a decision not to bring criminal charges in the case of Jimmy Mubenga after an inquest jury found the father-of-five was unlawfully killed as he was deported from Britain.

Mr Mubenga died in hospital after security guards on a British Airways flight to his native Angola noticed the 46-year-old was not breathing.

The 46-year-old died later in hospital after the plane was stopped on the runway at Heathrow Airport to seek urgent medical care.

An inquest jury of seven men and three women at Isleworth Crown Court in west London recorded a majority verdict of nine to one of unlawful killing after four days of deliberations following an eight-week hearing.

After the verdict, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: "Following this verdict, we will consider our original decision in light of any new evidence or information from the inquest, including any conclusions reached by the jury."

Three G4S guards - Terence Hughes, Stuart Tribelnig and Colin Kaler - accompanied Mr Mubenga on the flight in October 2010, but said he was restrained when he attacked one of the guards soon after boarding the plane.

Mubenga died of cardio-respiratory collapse, where the heart stops beating and a person stops breathing, the inquest found.

Other passengers on board the flight said they heard Mubenga wailing for help after saying he could not breathe, with one of the guards apparently replying: "Yes, you can."

No charges have ever been brought against the security guards, despite Mr Mubenga's widow claiming that somebody ought to be held responsible for his death.

The Angolan was being deported after serving a prison sentence for assault.

Mubenga and his wife, Adrienne Makenda Kambana, had been living in Ilford, east London, after arriving in the UK from Angola in 1994.

He was in the process of applying for permission to stay in the country permanently when it was decided he should be deported after serving two years in jail for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Returning the verdict of unlawful killing, the jury foreman said: "Based on the evidence we have heard, we have found Mr Mubenga was pushed or held down by one or more of the guards.

"We find that this was unreasonable force.

"The guards would have known that they would have caused harm to Mr Mubenga, if not serious harm."

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