Brazilian delegation to seek answers over shooting of innocent man
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-08-22 15:33

Brazilian officials were to meet London police and members of the probe into the shooting of an innocent compatriot, seeking answers after reports that police did not believe the man was a security threat added to the furore over the killing.

Jean Charles de Menezes was shot and killed on July 22 by police officers who feared he may have been a suicide bomber, a day after a failed attempted repeat of the July 7 bombings on London transport that killed 52 people as well as the four apparent bombers.

Weekend press reports that surveillance officers who followed the 27-year-old electrician into a south London subway station, where he was shot eight times on a train, did not feel he was armed or about to set off a bomb, have added to the controversy over the death.

"The Brazilian government anticipates receiving clarification regarding a number of matters, including the information released by the press in recent days," the country's embassy said on its website when announcing the meeting on Sunday.

The Brazilian delegation was to meet representatives from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigating the shooting, John Yates, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and other British officials.

Quoting senior police sources, the Observer newspaper said on Sunday the three surveillance officers who followed de Menezes into a south London subway station wanted to detain the man.

Instead they were instructed to hand over the operation to a team of armed police who then shot him dead in a carriage full of horrified commuters, the newspaper said.

In a similar report, the Sunday Mirror newspaper said the surveillance officer who restrained De Menezes inside the carriage was "totally shocked when the suspect was repeatedly shot while he was holding him".

The killing, in the tense days after the July 7 bombings in the British capital, has led for calls for London's police chief Ian Blair to resign.

In an interview with the News of the World Blair said 24 hours passed before he learned that de Menezes was innocent, after he publicly linked the incident to the ongoing anti-terrorist operation.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott backed the nation's most senior police officer, telling the BBC simply "yes" when asked if Blair enjoyed his "full and unqualified" confidence.

But he appeared to criticise the way the police force offered compensation to the dead 27-year-old's family.

The Met said Saturday it had offered 15,000 pounds (22,200 euros, 27,000 dollars) as an "ex gratia" payment.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said late Saturday he was "very happy" with Blair's conduct, adding the Metropolitan Police had done "very well" in response to the worst terrorist attacks ever on British soil in terms of loss of life.

Outraged relatives of the dead Brazilian have called for Blair to resign, even as the independent commission tries to sort out what exactly happened.

Blair last week denied allegations of a cover-up after documents leaked to ITV television radically contradicted the initial version of events given by police and witnesses.

Brazil has sent to London Wagner Goncalves, federal deputy attorney general and inspector general of the federal prosecutor's office, and Marcio Pereira Pinto Garcia, assistant director of the department of international judicial cooperation at the Brazilian ministry of justice.