Brazil: No British Police Cover-Up

Brazil's ambassador said Tuesday he has no reason to believe at this point that British police tried to cover-up the circumstances of the fatal police shooting of a Brazilian mistaken for a terrorist in London's subway.

The statement by Ambassador Manoel Gomes Pereira came as Britain's police promised to deliver a report by the end of the year on the slaying of electrician Jean Charles de Menezes — and as two senior Brazilian officials in London continued with their own inquiry.

The Brazilian investigation has only added to pressure on police amid claims that a series of errors led to the misidentification of Menezes and allegations of a cover-up. Scrutiny has increased with revelations contradicting initial police statements, along with media reports suggesting police might have erased vital closed-circuit TV footage.

Undercover police shot Menezes seven times in the head and once in the shoulder after following him onto an Underground train on July 22, the day after four failed bomb attacks on London's transit system. Two weeks earlier, four suspected suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in similar attacks.

New information has contradicted initial police statements that Menezes was wearing a bulky coat despite warm weather and that he ran from officers who tailed him to the train station. Police also face criticism that they initially resisted an independent investigation, something the force denies.

Scotland Yard and the police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, refused to comment Tuesday on reports that police said tapes from closed-circuit TV cameras in the subway system were blank while Underground workers say they weren't.

Such tapes could provide key evidence of Menezes' behavior inside the subway station and the actions of officers following him.

London's Evening Standard had suggested that police might have erased the tapes. But the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, citing sources close to the Menezes family, dismissed those reports, saying useful material was found on the tapes.

When asked about the possibilities of a police cover-up, Brazilian Ambassador Manoel Gomes Pereira told reporters: "No, at this point, no. ... At the moment, we don't have any reason whatsoever to assume that."

As part of their independent problem, Wagner Goncalves, Brazil's deputy attorney general, and Marcio Pereira Pinto Garcia, a high-ranking Brazilian Justice Ministry official, met with police on Monday and planned to meet prosecutors and the head of the police watchdog group.

An attorney for the watchdog group, Richard Latham, said that the officers involved in Menezes's death could face criminal or disciplinary proceedings, and that the commission would not publish its report until any such proceedings were complete.

He said any recommendations for criminal case against the officers would be made public. He also defended the months it would take for the commission to deliver its report. "No one would expect an investigation like this to be hurried," he told a brief hearing at a coroner's inquest, which was adjourned until Feb. 23.

The watchdog commission's lead investigator, John Cummins, said he received "a comprehensive ... package" of investigative materials from the Metropolitan Police when commission took over the case, five days after Menezes' death.

"There is a considerable amount of fresh work still to be done," he added.

Harriet Wistrich, a lawyer representing the Menezes family, said they were pleased that there would be a report this year.

"The priority for the family is to properly understand what happened, who was responsible and, if appropriate, for prosecutions to follow," Wistrich said.

"What we do know is that there was a whole lot of misinformation circulated around for a long time," she added.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has said police assume full responsibility for the shooting but has rejected calls for his resignation. On Sunday, he won the backing of Prime Minister Tony Blair's office and of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, in charge while the Blair vacations in Barbados.