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Menezes report due by December

Brazilian Alessandro Pereira, left, holds a picture of his cousin, Jean Charles de Menezes, outside 10 Downing Street, where he handed in a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in London on Monday. Pereira was attending a vigil exactly one month after the shooting of Menezes on July 22. PHOTO: AP

Britain's police watchdog agency yesterday promised to deliver a report by the end of the year on the slaying of a Brazilian man mistaken for a terrorist suspect on the subway system.

"No one would expect an investigation like this to be hurried," said Richard Latham, an attorney for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Criminal and/or disciplinary proceedings against the officers involved was a possibility, Latham told a brief hearing at a coroner's inquest.

The inquest into the July 22 killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot seven times in the head by police officers, was adjourned until Feb. 23.

Wagner Goncalves, Brazil's deputy attorney general, and Marcio Pereira Pinto Garcia, a high-ranking Brazilian Justice Ministry official, arrived in London on Monday to determine how and why officers killed the 27-year-old electrician. A relative of the victim also demanded that British Prime Minister Tony Blair make sure those responsible were prosecuted.

Latham said the commission would not publish its report until any criminal or disciplinary proceedings were completed.

"There is no intention on the part of the IPCC of providing what might be described as a running commentary on the progress of the investigation," Latham said. "It is hoped that all will recognize the sensitivity of the material assembled by the IPCC."

"In due course there may -- I emphasize the `may' -- be recommendations to the Director [of Public Prosecutions] that criminal proceedings should be initiated or a recommendation to the Metropolitan Police or the Metropolitan Police Authority that disciplinary proceedings may arise and, inevitably, in due course there will be an inquest," he said. "It follows that the IPCC recognizes that nothing should be disclosed or published which could prejudice this inquest or any potential criminal or disciplinary proceedings."

Harriet Wistrich, a lawyer representing the 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.

Undercover police followed Menezes onto an Underground train and shot him seven times in the head and once in the shoulder 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.
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