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Thursday, July 28, 2005 

Met admits to lying about the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Murkier and murkier still:

Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, Vivien Figueiredo, 22, said that the first reports of how her 27-year-old cousin had come to be killed in mistake for a suicide bomber on Friday at Stockwell tube station were wrong.

"He used a travel card," she said. "He had no bulky jacket, he was wearing a jeans jacket. But even if he was wearing a bulky jacket that wouldn't be an excuse to kill him."


How on earth are the Met even going to attempt justifying shooting this man as a potential terrorist? It turns out that he had no connection to the suspected bombers, that they let him board a bus, that he used a travel card to get on the tube instead of jumping the barriers and that he was not wearing an suspiciously heavy jacket for the weather at the time.

To make an assumption, the police must have started chasing him when he legally entered the tube station. Whether they shouted a warning at him or identified themselves must be considered to be unknown at this time, especially in light of yesterday's story that they need not shout any warning to a suspect. Did they simply shout 'stop' at him and then chase him? What would you do if you were at a station and being chased by men with guns? It seems as if Jean tried to escape by jumping on a train just about to leave.

The murder of Jean Charles was meant to prepare Britain for what they are going to or want to do. The police want the power to shoot to kill, with no investigations into their actions, as demanded by the Murdoch rag the Sun. They chose a target that they thought they could get away with murdering. He looked like a Muslim. He came out of flats that were under surveillance. In short, they could fill the rest of the gaps in the story in themselves. Unfortunately for the Met, they made numerous errors. He wasn't a Muslim. He was Brazilian, and one who had been living here for 6 years. He had relatives that would contradict their lies. He ran away when they challenged him at the station. They shot him dead in front of commuters who could challenge their version of events. They didn't count on some of the media questioning their barbaric methods. They didn't count on Brazil calling for a full independent inquiry.

Despite this, the Met has lied about the murder from the very beginning. They had stooges at the station who said that the man had a bomb belt under his heavy jacket. Then Ian Blair said that the man was 'directly linked' to their investigation of the July 21st attempted bombings. Once their story began to fall apart, they began to spin further. They leaked to the BBC that his student visa had ran out, since contradicted by his relatives and even Jack Straw. (Update: The BBC is reporting that the Home Office is now saying his visa had ran out, and apparently a fraudlent stamp was on his passport giving him indefinte leave. More spinning or truth? Who knows? Does it make a difference?) Now their facts of the shooting are being exposed as lies.

His murder must not be forgotten. Unless we challenge the death squad mentality which the police, government and some of the media want, more innocent people will die at the hands of the police, in the name of "protecting" the public. We cannot, and must not, let this happen.

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