Menezes shooting 'a tragedy'

2008-10-06 17:30

London - A Brazilian man shot dead by British police after being mistaken for a suicide bomber was the victim of an "awful tragedy", the commander in charge said on Monday, while defending officers involved.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick made the comments as she came face to face with the mother of Jean Charles de Menezes, attending an inquest into her son's death for the first time.

De Menezes was shot seven times on July 22 2005 after police mistook him for Hussain Osman, who was part of failed attempted suicide bombings in London a day earlier.

At the time, Britain was on heightened alert following the attacks on London's public transport network on July 7 2005 that left 56 dead.

"It is a tragedy - it is an awful tragedy," Dick told the inquest, explaining that de Menezes was killed because of a series of "unfortunate" coincidences.

These included the fact that de Menezes lived in the same apartment block as Osman and looked "very like" him, and used the same London Underground station as three of the July 21 bombers.

"Mr de Menezes was the victim of some terrible and extraordinary circumstances the day afterwards," she said.

"He was extraordinarily unfortunate to live in the same block as Hussain Osman had been. He was desperately unfortunate to look very like Hussain Osman."

But she added: "If you ask me whether I think anybody did anything wrong or unreasonable in the operation, I don't think they did."

Watching her testimony in the courtroom at the Oval cricket ground in south London was the victim's mother, Maria Otone de Menezes, who made no immediate comment on the case.

- AFP