Met chief: I was kept in the dark on Tube killing

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/cri...icle307325.ece

Met chief: I was kept in the dark on Tube killing

By Severin Carrell

Published: 21 August 2005

Sir Ian Blair, Britain's most senior police officer, has admitted he did not know his officers had killed an innocent man until a day after Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station.

His revelation in a newspaper interview today will add to growing concern about the police investigation into the killing of the Brazilian electrician on Friday 22 July.

Sir Ian said he first learnt that the Brazilian was entirely innocent at about 10.30 the following morning, when one of his officers told him: "We have some difficulty here, there is a lack of connection" with the police inquiry into the terror attacks. "I thought, 'That's dreadful, what are we going to do about that?'"

His remarks came as The Independent on Sunday learnt that the Met Commissioner is to be questioned by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about a catalogue of errors in the police operation, and his own role as events unfolded.

The row over the shooting intensified further amid claims that the dead man's family had been offered £560,000 compensation by the police. However, the Home Secretary leapt to Sir Ian's defence, by insisting he was "very happy" with his and his force's handling of the affair.

The IPCC - which has the power to interview police under caution and to recommend criminal charges for misconduct - is due to question other senior officers who oversaw the surveillance operation that led to the killing.

An IPCC dossier leaked last week revealed that Mr de Menezes had done nothing to indicate he was a potential suicide bomber, and had calmly gone into Stockwell Tube station and boarded a train.

Despite initial claims from Sir Ian and eye-witnesses at the station that his behaviour was suspicious, the IPCC's evidence shows he had neither fled the police nor did he resist them. He was shot after an officer had grabbed him from behind and held him down.

Sir Ian's appearance in front of the IPCC would put their tense relations under even greater strain. The police have voiced their dismay at the leak of the IPCC files. Less than 90 minutes after the shooting, the Met Commissioner wrote to the Home Office asking for a delay in the IPCC inquiry because he believed the electrician was linked to the failed 21 July bombings in London. His request was rejected by the Home Office - but it was still three days before the inquiry began.

Two senior Brazilian legal investigators are due to arrive in London tomorrow to question the IPCC and the police. Mr de Menezes's parents are expected to visit London later this month and to visit the scene of his death.


Sir Ian Blair, Britain's most senior police officer, has admitted he did not know his officers had killed an innocent man until a day after Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station.

His revelation in a newspaper interview today will add to growing concern about the police investigation into the killing of the Brazilian electrician on Friday 22 July.

Sir Ian said he first learnt that the Brazilian was entirely innocent at about 10.30 the following morning, when one of his officers told him: "We have some difficulty here, there is a lack of connection" with the police inquiry into the terror attacks. "I thought, 'That's dreadful, what are we going to do about that?'"

His remarks came as The Independent on Sunday learnt that the Met Commissioner is to be questioned by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about a catalogue of errors in the police operation, and his own role as events unfolded.

The row over the shooting intensified further amid claims that the dead man's family had been offered £560,000 compensation by the police. However, the Home Secretary leapt to Sir Ian's defence, by insisting he was "very happy" with his and his force's handling of the affair.

The IPCC - which has the power to interview police under caution and to recommend criminal charges for misconduct - is due to question other senior officers who oversaw the surveillance operation that led to the killing.


An IPCC dossier leaked last week revealed that Mr de Menezes had done nothing to indicate he was a potential suicide bomber, and had calmly gone into Stockwell Tube station and boarded a train.

Despite initial claims from Sir Ian and eye-witnesses at the station that his behaviour was suspicious, the IPCC's evidence shows he had neither fled the police nor did he resist them. He was shot after an officer had grabbed him from behind and held him down.

Sir Ian's appearance in front of the IPCC would put their tense relations under even greater strain. The police have voiced their dismay at the leak of the IPCC files. Less than 90 minutes after the shooting, the Met Commissioner wrote to the Home Office asking for a delay in the IPCC inquiry because he believed the electrician was linked to the failed 21 July bombings in London. His request was rejected by the Home Office - but it was still three days before the inquiry began.

Two senior Brazilian legal investigators are due to arrive in London tomorrow to question the IPCC and the police. Mr de Menezes's parents are expected to visit London later this month and to visit the scene of his death.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article307384.ece

'Disgusted' parents reject Met's offer of £15,000 compensation for dead son

By Severin Carrell

Published: 21 August 2005



The parents of the Brazilian electrician shot dead by police were offered £15,000 in compensation for the loss of their son, raising allegations that the family were being bought off.

The offer was made to the mother and father of Jean Charles de Menezes by a senior Metropolitan Police commander during a hurried meeting arranged eight days after the electrician was shot dead at Stockwell tube station.

His grieving parents, Maria de Menezes, 59, and Matozinhos, 66, claim they were pressurised into agreeing to the meeting with Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates at their home in the remote town of Gonzaga, with less than a day's notice.

Jean Charles's brother, Giovani, told The Mail on Sunday: "They thought we were poor people, stupid people. We may be poor but we are not that stupid. We will not exchange money for my brother's life - but we will punish them."

However, the money was offered as part of a larger financial package prepared by the Metropolitan Police to fund the family's funeral and travel expenses. The force insists it was not trying to buy the family's silence, but making a genuine offer of help.

The typed letter, written in English, also promised to pay for his body to be flown home, air tickets for close relatives, the funeral costs and some legal expenses for the family. The £15,000 offer, the letter stressed, was an ex gratia payment "paid without any consideration of legal liability or responsibility" - including possible legal action against the force. However, newspaper claims yesterday that the force had offered $1m (£560,000) were dismissed as wholly untrue by the Met.

The family felt insulted by the £15,000 offer, Mrs de Menezes said. "I thought it was disgusting for this policeman to be talking about money when my son was only just buried. I did not like having to sit near such a man."

Although the police letter advised them to get advice from the family's lawyers in Britain, the de Menezes's claim their requests to postpone the meeting until their lawyer could get to them were turned down by Mr Yates.

"We do not want money in exchange for Jean's life, but we want to punish them - so we want a lot of money. We are also concentrating on making sure these policemen go to prison," said Giovani.

The incident adds to the family's wider complaints about their treatment by the police and is consistent with their repeated demands for judicial action against the Metropolitan Police.

The family's campaigners, Justice4Jean, allege that close relatives who flew into Britain on Sunday 24 July, two days after his killing, were given a hotel on the outskirts of London and had the phone to their room cut off.

Their contacts with the police were restricted to two family liaison officers, and they were refused meetings with senior force commanders. Family members in London and Brazil also protest that their requests for detailed information were turned down.

However, his relatives did discover - from remarks to them by their police liaison officer soon after they arrived in London - that CCTV footage from Stockwell station had shown Jean Charles walking calmly into the station.

In contrast to widely circulated eyewitness claims that he had been seen running into the ticket hall and had vaulted the ticket barriers, the family were unofficially told that he had used his Oyster travel pass. And, they were told, he was dressed in a lightweight denim jacket, not the bulky coat which some witnesses claimed.

Those disclosures were confirmed last week when a confidential dossier compiled by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was leaked to ITV News. Those papers also revealed that Jean Charles had neither run from police nor resisted arrest, before being seized by an undercover officer and then shot dead at close range.

His mother said: "Now I know the real truth about why they killed him, I am so hurt I can't sleep. First they killed my son, now they are killing me. I take sleeping pills but still I wake in the night shaking."

Her son Giovani added: "When Jean came home in his coffin, they had bandaged the top of his head. My mother screamed and screamed. Why did they have to use this many bullets? Was it revenge because they thought he was one of the bombers?"

The family's lawyers say his parents and close relatives remain deeply unhappy about the Met's claims that it is unable to answer questions because the shooting is now being investigated by the IPCC.

According to Gareth Peirce, their London-based solicitor, this "reticence" is in stark contrast to the police's mistaken claims on the day of the shooting that Jean Charles was "directly linked" to the terror investigation. "We express incredulity that senior police officers would have made extravagant claims from the outset without first informing themselves of the true facts. To have done anything else was negligent in the extreme," Ms Peirce said.


The parents of the Brazilian electrician shot dead by police were offered £15,000 in compensation for the loss of their son, raising allegations that the family were being bought off.

The offer was made to the mother and father of Jean Charles de Menezes by a senior Metropolitan Police commander during a hurried meeting arranged eight days after the electrician was shot dead at Stockwell tube station.

His grieving parents, Maria de Menezes, 59, and Matozinhos, 66, claim they were pressurised into agreeing to the meeting with Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Yates at their home in the remote town of Gonzaga, with less than a day's notice.

Jean Charles's brother, Giovani, told The Mail on Sunday: "They thought we were poor people, stupid people. We may be poor but we are not that stupid. We will not exchange money for my brother's life - but we will punish them."

However, the money was offered as part of a larger financial package prepared by the Metropolitan Police to fund the family's funeral and travel expenses. The force insists it was not trying to buy the family's silence, but making a genuine offer of help.

The typed letter, written in English, also promised to pay for his body to be flown home, air tickets for close relatives, the funeral costs and some legal expenses for the family. The £15,000 offer, the letter stressed, was an ex gratia payment "paid without any consideration of legal liability or responsibility" - including possible legal action against the force. However, newspaper claims yesterday that the force had offered $1m (£560,000) were dismissed as wholly untrue by the Met.

The family felt insulted by the £15,000 offer, Mrs de Menezes said. "I thought it was disgusting for this policeman to be talking about money when my son was only just buried. I did not like having to sit near such a man."

Although the police letter advised them to get advice from the family's lawyers in Britain, the de Menezes's claim their requests to postpone the meeting until their lawyer could get to them were turned down by Mr Yates.

"We do not want money in exchange for Jean's life, but we want to punish them - so we want a lot of money. We are also concentrating on making sure these policemen go to prison," said Giovani.

The incident adds to the family's wider complaints about their treatment by the police and is consistent with their repeated demands for judicial action against the Metropolitan Police.


The family's campaigners, Justice4Jean, allege that close relatives who flew into Britain on Sunday 24 July, two days after his killing, were given a hotel on the outskirts of London and had the phone to their room cut off.

Their contacts with the police were restricted to two family liaison officers, and they were refused meetings with senior force commanders. Family members in London and Brazil also protest that their requests for detailed information were turned down.

However, his relatives did discover - from remarks to them by their police liaison officer soon after they arrived in London - that CCTV footage from Stockwell station had shown Jean Charles walking calmly into the station.

In contrast to widely circulated eyewitness claims that he had been seen running into the ticket hall and had vaulted the ticket barriers, the family were unofficially told that he had used his Oyster travel pass. And, they were told, he was dressed in a lightweight denim jacket, not the bulky coat which some witnesses claimed.

Those disclosures were confirmed last week when a confidential dossier compiled by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was leaked to ITV News. Those papers also revealed that Jean Charles had neither run from police nor resisted arrest, before being seized by an undercover officer and then shot dead at close range.

His mother said: "Now I know the real truth about why they killed him, I am so hurt I can't sleep. First they killed my son, now they are killing me. I take sleeping pills but still I wake in the night shaking."

Her son Giovani added: "When Jean came home in his coffin, they had bandaged the top of his head. My mother screamed and screamed. Why did they have to use this many bullets? Was it revenge because they thought he was one of the bombers?"

The family's lawyers say his parents and close relatives remain deeply unhappy about the Met's claims that it is unable to answer questions because the shooting is now being investigated by the IPCC.

According to Gareth Peirce, their London-based solicitor, this "reticence" is in stark contrast to the police's mistaken claims on the day of the shooting that Jean Charles was "directly linked" to the terror investigation. "We express incredulity that senior police officers would have made extravagant claims from the outset without first informing themselves of the true facts. To have done anything else was negligent in the extreme," Ms Peirce said.

[align=left]Police knew Brazilian was 'not bomb risk' [/align]

[align=left]London Observer | August 21 2005[/align]

Police officers from the team involved in the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes did not believe he posed 'an immediate threat'.


Senior sources in the Metropolitan Police have told The Observer that members of the surveillance team who followed de Menezes into Stockwell underground station in London felt that he was not about to detonate a bomb, was not armed and was not acting suspiciously. It was only when they were joined by armed officers that his threat was deemed so great that he was shot seven times.

Sources said that the surveillance officers wanted to detain de Menezes, but were told to hand over the operation to the firearms team.

The two teams have fallen out over the circumstances surrounding the incident, raising fresh questions about how the operation was handled.

A police source said: 'There is no way those three guys would have been on the train carriage with him [de Menezes] if they believed he was carrying a bomb. Nothing he did gave the surveillance team the impression that he was carrying a device.'

Last night, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair admitted he was told that shooting created 'a difficulty'.

In an interview with the News of the World, Blair said that an officer came to him the day after the shooting and said the equivalent of 'Houston, we have a problem'.

'He didn't use those words but he said "We have some difficulty here, there is a lack of connection". 'I thought "That's dreadful, what are we going to do about that?".'

The Observer can also reveal that the de Menezes family was offered £15,000 after the shooting. The ex gratia payment, which does not affect legal action by the family or compensation, is a fraction of the $1 million (£560,000) reported to have been offered the family. Police yesterday denied they had made the offer, which the family has described as 'offensive'.

Members of the firearms unit are said to be furious that de Menezes was not properly identified when he left his flat, the first problem in the chain of events that led to the Brazilian's death.

Specialist officers with the firearms team active that day had received training in how to deal with suicide bombers. A key element was advice that a potential bomber will detonate at the first inkling he has been identified. They are trained to react at the first sign of any action.

The Observer now understands that seconds before the firearms team entered the tube train carriage, a member of the surveillance squad using the codename Hotel 3 moved to the doorway and shouted: 'He's in here.' De Menezes, in all likelihood alarmed by the activity, stood and moved towards the doorway. He was grabbed and pushed back to his seat. The first shots were then fired while Hotel 3 was holding him.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is to investigate if the firearms officers, with only seconds to decide whether to shoot, mistakenly interpreted de Menezes's movement as an aggressive act.

For the firearms officers involved in the death to avoid any legal action, they will have to state that they believed their lives and those of the passengers were in immediate danger. Such a view is unlikely to be supported by members of the surveillance unit.

For reasons as yet unclear, members of the firearms team have yet to submit their own account of the events to the IPCC. The two members of the team believed to have fired the fatal shots are known to have gone on holiday immediately after the shooting.

In one case, the holiday had been pre-booked, in the other the leave was authorised by Blair, who yesterday received the backing of the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke: 'I am very happy with the conduct, not only of Sir Ian Blair, but the whole Metropolitan Police in relation to this inquiry.'

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about the accuracy of the police intelligence that led to the raid on the block of flats occupied by de Menezes. It was initially suggested that the flat was connected to the man known as Hussein Osman, who was arrested in Italy. On the Saturday after the shooting, officers raided the flat in a high-profile operation watched by the world's media. As a result, a man, identified only as 'C', was arrested 'on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism'. But he was released on 30 July with no charge, raising the possibility that the flats had no connection with the bombings.

The IPCC is also expected to look into selective briefings to the media over the days following the shootings.

The parents of de Menezes said they have rejected all financial offers made by the police. 'I feel hurt and offended,' Jean's mother, Maria Otoni de Menezes, told The Observer this weekend. 'I didn't think it was right to talk about money so soon after my son's death.'

One document seen by The Observer and handed to the family on 1 August by the Met's assistant deputy commissioner, John Yates, sets out a final settlement, on top of an agreement to pay repatriation and legal fees. 'The MPS offers £15,000 by way of compensation to you for the death of Jean Charles,' says the document, dated 27 July. 'This ... extra gratia paymen ... means it is paid without any consideration of legal liability or responsibility.'