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“Police misled public on Menezes shooting”

LONDON: Police deliberately fed “misleading” information to the media to keep the fiction alive that an innocent man they had shot dead at a London tube station two weeks after the 7/7 attacks was a suspected suicide bomber.

This is the finding of an inquiry into allegations of an attempted cover-up by Scotland Yard over the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian youth, on July 22, 2005, which sparked an international outcry and led to calls for the police chief, Ian Blair, to be sacked.

The inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found “serious weaknesses” in the way Scotland Yard handled the aftermath of the incident and singled out its most senior counter-terror officer Andy Hayman for his role.

It said his actions in the hours following the shooting amounted to “misconduct” as he failed to inform the Police Commissioner of his suspicions that the victim was not a suicide bomber. Despite his own suspicions, which he aired at a briefing of crime reporters, he allowed the impression to remain that the man’s identity had not been fully established.

Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician from Brazil, was on his way to work when he was pursued by counter-terror officers and shot seven times as he sat in a train at Stockwell Underground station, south London.

Officers claimed that he was acting in a suspicious manner and that they were forced to shoot him after he jumped over a ticket barrier and refused to obey orders to stop. They also claimed that he wore a thick jacket from which an object, which they suspected to be an explosive, protruded.

Soon after the incident, even as doubts had started to emerge about police claims, Sir Ian insisted at a press conference that the shooting was “directly linked” to anti-terror operations. It took police more than 24 hours to admit that they had killed the wrong man and subsequently it was established that the initial police version of the circumstances leading to the shooting was a lie.

In its report, released on Thursday, the IPCC said that, contrary to police claims, Menezes wore ordinary summer clothes and did nothing to suggest that he had acted in a suspicious manner. It refuted police claims that he “disobeyed” their orders.

The report, which focused on complaints from the Menezes’ family, cleared Sir Ian of any direct responsibility but felt that he should have done more to obtain a clearer picture of the events. Menezes’ family insisted that it was “inconceivable” that the Commissioner did not know the truth.

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