De Menezes lawyers meet police investigators

Lawyers for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes met officials from the UK's police watchdog today for the first time since a fresh wave of revelations re-ignited the controversy over his shooting by anti-terror officers.

Harriet Wistrich and Gareth Peirce, who are acting on behalf of Mr de Menezes’s family, met investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) at offices in Camden, north London.

The face-to-face meeting was arranged to enable the IPCC to update the de Menezes family on its latest findings after documents from the inquiry were leaked to ITV News earlier this week.

They contained detailed accounts of the shooting of Mr de Menezes which appeared to contradict much of what was previously believed about his death.

The disclosures have caused fury among the Brazilian’s family, put pressure on Scotland Yard chief Ian Blair and prompted allegations of a cover-up.

Mr de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot seven times in the head at point-blank range by anti-terror officers at Stockwell Tube Station last month after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

It came the day after the failed July 21 bomb attacks on the London transport network and it is thought he may have been mistaken for the alleged Shepherd’s Bush bomber, Hussain Osman.

The leaked documents revealed on Tuesday that Mr de Menezes had done little to arouse suspicion other than to emerge from a block of flats in south London which had been under surveillance.

Mehmuda Mian Pritchard, one of the IPCC commissioners who is working on the case, was attending today’s meeting at offices adjacent to a Brazilian restaurant. The IPCC’s chairman Nick Hardwick is in charge of the inquiry, but he is believed to be out of the country on leave this week.

Ms Wistrich said today that the IPCC had instigated the meeting.

She said there were real problems with the inquiry because of the delay in referring the case to the IPCC, and because of “misinformation“.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the delay meant crucial evidence could have been lost.

“They (the IPCC) need to look at, obviously, primarily who was responsible for the killing, whether anything went wrong, whether anyone is at fault,” she said.

“They need to look at wider issues in terms of police policy in relation to shoot-to-kill, and we will be asking for a very urgent review of that policy in the light of what happened.”

Ms Wistrich added that the IPCC also had to look at the failure of the police to assist its inquiry immediately.

“Frankly, we are sceptical now as to the chances of a completely independent, thorough, transparent inquiry,” she said.