British police chief under fire
2006-06-11 08:44
London - Britain's most senior police officer was under fire again Sunday after a newspaper revealed police blunders listed in a leaked report into the mistaken shooting of a Brazilian man in London last July.
The dossier said senior police officers knew Jean Charles de Menezes was innocent and not a suicide bomber just hours after he was shot dead by police on a subway train, the News of the World reported.
But the officers failed to tell Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair until the next day, the weekly said, citing a leaked copy of the report.
An anonymous source linked to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which drew up the 150-page document, told the News of the World: "That's a cast-iron fact. The question is why.
"The belief in Whitehall is that it's because Sir Ian is notorious for taking bad news very badly - they just couldn't face telling him so they left it until Saturday morning."
The source added: "Sir Ian has always insisted neither he nor his senior officers knew the wrong man had been shot before about 10am Saturday. But the report proves two (Scotland) Yard departments knew the truth by 9.45pm Friday."
The 27-year-old Brazilian electrician was killed on a train in Stockwell subway station on July 22 - a day after a failed attempt to mimic the July 7 suicide bombings in London which left 56 people dead.
He was gunned down by mistake under a controversial shoot-to-kill policy for would-be suicide bombers.
De Menezes' death sparked calls for Blair to resign.
The commissioner is also under pressure after police Friday released without charge two Muslim brothers who were arrested in a huge anti-terrorist raid on their home in London in which one of the men was shot in the shoulder.
Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who is recovering from the gun shot wound, and 20-year-old Abul Koyair had been held for questioning for a week as officers scoured their house, reportedly looking for some kind of chemical weapon.
- AFP