No surprises in Menezes report
2007-11-08 16:47
London - The chairperson of a police watchdog body said on Thursday its report on the killing of a Brazilian man whom London police mistook for a suicide bomber would contain no starting revelations.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission's report on the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes is being released on Thursday, a week after London's Metropolitan Police were convicted of violating health and safety regulations by placing the public in danger.
Police shot and killed Menezes on July 22 2005, a day after four would-be suicide bombers failed to detonate their devices on a bus and three subway trains, and 15 days after four bombers killed themselves and 52 bus and subway passengers in London.
Leaders of opposition parties reacted to that verdict against the police by calling for the resignation of the police chief, Sir Ian Blair, but he has refused and has been supported by Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government.
Nick Hardwick, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said its report contains no "startling new revelations".
"What we want to do is to move this on now to what needs to happen to reduce the risks in future and try to make sure that future police anti-terrorist operations are more effective and the same mistakes aren't made again," he told British Broadcasting Corporation radio.
He said the police department had already adopted some of the commission's suggestions.
Hardwick called the shooting a "serious corporate failing".
"What you had was a series of small mistakes potentially by individuals working under great pressure that together amounted to a serious corporate failing and those are things that can be put right. This is not about some mindless risk avoidance," he said.
- AP