Brazil demands answers from UK
2005-07-24 07:39
Sao Paulo - The Brazilian government "was shocked and perplexed" to learn that London police mistakenly shot to death a Brazilian citizen on a subway car, the foreign ministry said.
"The government expects the British authorities to explain the circumstances that led to this tragedy," Saturday's statement said, without citing the citizen's name or giving any other information about the incident.
London authorities said 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes was killed on Friday at the Stockwell subway station as police investigated the series of botched transit bombings a day earlier and the July 7 attacks that killed 56 people, including the four bombers.
The Brazilian government said their citizen was "apparently the victim of a lamentable mistake."
Foreign minister Celso Amorim, who is on his way to London for talks on United Nations reform, will try to meet with British foreign secretary Jack Straw to seek an explanation, the statement added.
"Brazil has always condemned all forms of terrorism and has been willing to contribute to the eradication of this scourge under international norms, including with respect to human rights," the statement said.
Local media reported that Menezes was an electrician who had been living legally and working in England for three years.
"He spoke English very well, and had permission to study and work there," Menezes' cousin Maria Alves told the O Globo Online Web site from her home in Sao Paulo.
GloboNews TV reported that Menezes' body was identified by another cousin, Alex Alves Pereira, who lived with Menezes and two other cousins in London.
"I've already asked the police to release the body as soon as possible," Pereira told GloboNews from London. "That's all the family and his friends want right now."
Menezes was originally from the small city of Gonzaga, about 800km northeast of Sao Paulo in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
"There was no reason to think he was a terrorist," Menezes' grandmother, Zilda Ambrosia de Figueiredo, told Globo TV from Gonzaga. "He was very easygoing and very communicative with everybody. It's terrible what they have done to him."
- SAPA