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De Menezes: Top cop rapped
01/08/2007 09:42 - (SA)
London - Britain's top anti-terror police officer will be criticised in a report on the shooting of an innocent Brazilian man just weeks after the July 7 London bombings, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), due for release on Thursday, will single out Andy Hayman, the overall head of counter-terrorism and intelligence, for criticism.
Hayman will be accused of having been deliberately misleading in what he revealed on the day of the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes, on July 22, 2005.
The incident happened a day after a failed bomb attack - and just weeks after the July 7, bombings of London's transport network killed 52 commuters and injured more than 700.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting at Stockwell Underground station, unnamed sources said there were unconfirmed rumours that the man shot was not one of the four failed suicide bombers being hunted, The Guardian reported.
The IPCC report will criticise Hayman for having failed to pass on this information to Ian Blair, the commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, at the meeting the pair had at 18:00 on the day De Menezes was shot.
Blair was only told that De Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was entirely innocent the following day.
The report was not expected to seriously criticise Blair, The Guardian said.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the article, telling AFP: "We can't speculate before a report."
London 'in the grips of an attack'
The newspaper said that there had already been some criticism of the report, with unidentified sources noting the difficulty of the circumstances for the officers involved.
"This was London in the grips of an attack, two weeks after another terrorist attack had killed 52 people," a source told the paper.
"Four men were on the run who could have attacked again, the events of the day were extremely fast moving.
"There is a sense that the IPCC, having failed to recommend any action against any of the officers involved in the shooting itself needed a scapegoat."
Last year, prosecutors ruled that no criminal charges should be brought against any of the 15 officers investigated over the death.
Instead, London's Metropolitan Police force is being prosecuted for alleged breaches of health and safety law. If convicted it could face an unlimited fine.
De Menezes's family believe there was a police cover-up in the aftermath of the shooting and repeatedly called for Blair to resign.
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