Further revelations from the De Menzes killing

[voltaires_priest]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...9027_2,00.html

August 17, 2005

Shot Brazilian's lawyers demand inquiry over police 'lies'
By Sam Knight, Times Online

Lawyers acting for the family of the innocent Brazilian shot dead by police hunting the July 21 bombers have called for a full public inquiry into the killing after reading leaked witness statements about his final moments.

Gareth Peirce and Harriet Wistrich, the lawyers representing the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, say that documents leaked from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into the shooting show that "virtually the entire body of information" released by the police has, until now, been false.

"In consequence, we ask now that the nature and pace and ultimate objectives of any investigation change. The de Menezes family ask for only one outcome and that that be swift, that is that the entire truth surrounding Jean Charles death be made public now as a matter of urgency," the lawyers said today in a statement.

"The public interest coincides completely with the interests of the family," said the lawyers, who have set out 14 questions relating to the shooting that they want answered by the police and politicians.

"From the beginning the most senior of police officers and government ministers including the Prime Minister, claimed the death of Jean Charles to be an unfortunate accident occurring in the context of an entirely legitimate, justifiable, lawful and necessary policy," said the statement.

Extracts of the IPCC inquiry into the shooting of de Menezes, an electrician, were leaked to ITV News last night.

Photographs and witness statements imply that, in contrast with police briefings given soon after the shooting, de Menezes, 27, did nothing to suggest that he might be a suicide bomber before he was seized by police officers and shot eight times on a Tube train the morning after the failed attacks of July 21.

The documents also suggest that the surveillance team watching the building from which de Menezes emerged on the morning of July 22 failed to clearly identify him as one of the suspected bombers before he was trailed by firearms officers and the order was given to shoot.

In a further contradiction to initial police reports, witnesses said that de Menezes was wearing a lightweight jacket and behaving normally in Stockwell Tube station, South London, picking up a free newspaper and swiping his season ticket at the barriers, only breaking into a run when his train pulled into the station.

Early police reports had said he had been wearing a bulky coat which could have hidden an explosives belt, and "behaving erratically" when he vaulted the ticket barriers at Stockwell station and ran onto a crowded train.

In a statement tonight, the IPCC said it was meeting Mr de Menezes’s family’s solicitor tomorrow to update her on its investigation.

"The IPCC has the strongest powers of any police oversight body in the world," the statement said.

"We are carrying out a professional, thorough and impartial investigation into the shooting of Mr de Menezes, as we have done for the five previous police shootings which have taken place since the IPCC was set up in April 2004.

"We are meeting the family’s solicitor tomorrow to tell them the findings of our investigation so far."

The majority of the 14 questions asked by the lawyers representing the de Menezes today relate to the tactics used in the run-up to the shooting. Other questions relate to instructions given to the pathologist who carried out the post mortem on Mr de Menezes's body and the treatment of his relatives.

"In the light of many of the questions above having been answered during the last 24 hours by information clearly already in the possession of the police, we emphasise that we are unable to have confidence in any of the investigative processes that are now on offer in this case," said the lawyers.

The Home Office and the Metropolitan Police have so far refused to comment on the leaked information from the report. Last night the IPCC said its investigation was continuing and that its priority was "disclose any findings direct to the family".

But today, the Metropolitan Police did respond to an allegation made by Ms Peirce and Ms Wistrich that Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the force, sought on July 22 to delay any inquiry into the shooting.

A statement from Scotland Yard said that Sir Ian asked for a delay to the inquiry only in the initial hours after the shooting, when it was still believed to be relevant to the investigation into July 21 attacks. The investigation was handed over to the IPCC on the afternoon of July 22.

"This was an entirely transparent discussion as to mutual roles in the face of an unprecedented situation," said the statement.

Reacting to the leaked information, Alex Alvez Pereira, de Menezes's cousin, said that the officers who killed the Brazilian should face criminal charges.

"The officers who have done this have to be sent to jail for life, because it's murder, and the people who gave them the order to shoot must be punished. We won't rest until we have justice even if it takes years," Mr Pereira told the London Evening Standard.

[LalaMimi]

What a horrific situation. I am glad that some people have a conscience, to be able to expose a cover up such as this.

[Boogski]

Yep. Those cops screwed up big time. Damn shame.

[hiyahoya]

Originally posted by LalaMimi
What a horrific situation. I am glad that some people have a conscience, to be able to expose a cover up such as this.

"Horrific" no, horrific would describe London's al-Qaeda transit bombing atrocity.

"Singularly tragic" would befit one man's death.

Love, you might need to place your sympathies in perspective.

Today, thankfully, the orders are shoot-to-kill.

Welcome to the war on terror.

[voltaires_priest]

Indeed Carter, however I think LaLaMiMi's point is that it would be better if they shot people who actually are terrorists.


V

[LalaMimi]

Thanks VP..

Carter, maybe you do not put yourself for a moment, in the shoes of another person, however I do.. I am not as selective as you seem to be, when you are placing the grief of someone directly traumatised by terrorism, above the grief of the De Menzes family.

I will write what I feel is appropriate to the theme or sequence of the thread/subject - Without you delivering semantics my way, in how you think I'm supposed to be expressing myself.

[Ghazala]

I missed all this while I was away but was horrified when I read about it yesterday. The family must be devastated. These trigger-happy officers need to be dealt with and it needs to be made clear that we cannot allow innocent people to die in the name of 'security'.