de Menezes Report Delayed!

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The Jean Charles de Menezes Family Campaign has responded with anger at claims that the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) report into the Jean Charles’ shooting was being delayed for ‘political reasons’.

The family demanded an immediate explanation from the MPA.

It was alleged that the MPA report is critical of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Blair who Mayor Livingstone has supported through thick and thin, and it is feared that publishing it would cost Livingstone votes.

The report had been due to be completed in February but has been subject to continued delays.

Vivian Figueiredo, cousin of Jean, who lived with him at the time of the shooting, said: ‘If it is true that this report is being shelved for political reasons then it is scandalous and brings the MPA’s independence into question.

‘Time and again the information about how my cousin died is being kept secret.

‘We deserve to know everything that has happened; we have already waited so long. It is hard not to think delaying tactics are being used but we have come to expect this from a system that has treated us badly from the beginning.

‘The MPA report should be published as a priority.’

A spokesperson for the Justice4Jean Campaign said. ‘The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes has been the biggest policing scandal of the last decade and a central event in exposing police tactics in fighting the “war on terror” in the UK.

‘The deliberate killing of this innocent man led to the police being found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey of “catastrophic errors” and by the IPCC of “deliberately misleading the public”.

‘Despite all the available evidence Ken Livingstone has inexplicably supported the Metropolitan police at every stage of these proceedings – even going so far as to call the jury’s decision at the Health and Safety trial last year “disastrous” – but this is no reason for delaying this MPA report.

‘The claims that it is being shelved for “political reasons” only fuels suspicion that something more disturbing is at play.

‘The real issue is that almost three years after the shooting, not a single individual has been held responsible for the deliberate killing of an innocent man on his way to work on the tube in London.

‘This is a shameful result that should deeply concern anyone involved in the future of running this city.’

The next pre-inquest review in the Menezes case will be taking place on 25 April 2008 at Southwark Coroners Court.

The inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes is due to commence on 22 September 2008 and is expected to last approximately three months.