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The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that new reports about the killing of a Brazilian man who was allegedly mistaken for a terrorist by British police have "outraged" the government.
"The most recent information," together with images linked to the killing, "worsen the Brazilian government's feeling of outrage," the ministry said in a statement.
Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was shot eight times by a British policeman in a London subway station on July 22, a day after suspected terrorists carried four bombs into London's subway system.
But British news reports this week, citing documents apparently based on closed-circuit footage, suggested that Charles de Menezes did not act suspiciously or disobey police instructions.
London police said previously that Charles de Menezes ran away from police officers because his work permit had expired. And seeing that Charles de Menezes was running, police officers mistook him for a terrorist, chased him, overpowered him and killed him. The police expressed sorrow for this incident but said it would do so again under similar circumstances.
The British press said on Wednesday that Charles de Menezes might have been killed not by mistake, but because of a series of ambiguities tainted with racist elements.
Contradicting the initial police statement, the images obtained from the subway's closed-circuit video show that the Brazilian was not wearing winter clothes and was not carrying a suspicious backpack.
The British press reported that Charles de Menezes did not know he was being followed by the police and did not run away from the agents; nor did he jump over the Stockwell subway station gates. He walked calmly and even took a free newspaper before boarding the train.
Such information seems to refute chief of London police Ian Blair's statement that the Brazilian man, a 27-year-old electrician, was directly linked to the unsuccessful July 21 attacks in London.
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said the country will send a team to London next Monday to help with the investigation.
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2005)
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