The director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Brazilian Communities Abroad, Manoel Gomes Pereira, says that Brazil would like the British government to pinpoint the person responsible for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes.
Menezes, a 27-year old Brazilian living in London where he worked as an electrician, was shot by London police on July 22 immediately after he boarded a subway car.
Menezes had been mistakenly identified as a suicide bomber and became the first, and so far the only, victim of the London police shoot-to-kill policy. His death took place soon after over 50 people died in bomb attacks on London subways and buses.
According to Pereira, “We have a death that someone was responsible for. People in Britain and in Brazil would like some answers. I do not think we can have closure without some answers.”
At the moment a Brazilian mission is in London to accompany the Menezes investigation. So far members of the mission have expressed satisfaction with the Independent Investigation Commission’s activities and have said that they are getting answers to their questions.
ABr