Brazilian's family may get $1m
2005-08-01 07:29
London - Britain's Metropolitan Police may pay up to one million dollars in damages to the family of the innocent Brazilian who was shot dead in a bungled anti-terrorist chase in London, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The Daily Mail said John Yates, deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, was expected on Monday to make an initial payment to the family of electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27.
However, legal experts quoted by the Daily Mail believe the force could end up paying up to $1m to the impoverished family. Police officials were quoted as saying the final figure would be "very substantial".
In Sao Paulo, the Globonews website said a British government delegation had arrived in Brazil on Sunday and would travel on Monday to De Menezes' home town of Gonzaga, in southeast Brazil, to meet his parents to discuss compensation.
Watching
De Menezes was killed on July 22 after British police followed him from a London address they had been watching in connection with four failed bomb attacks the day before.
Mistaking him for a suicide bomber, officers cornered the Brazilian inside a subway train and shot him eight times at close range, seven times in the head.
He was buried in Gonzaga on Friday in a ceremony that attracted an estimated 10 000 people and was marked by anti-British protests.
The arrival of the British delegation could not be confirmed with the Brazilian ministry of foreign affairs.
- AFP