BRITISH POLICE COVERUP

The Metropolitan police have blocked attempts by independent investigators to obtain sensitive files about the role that Sir Ian Blair, the commissioner, played after the shooting of an innocent Brazilian man on the London Underground. Well-placed sources say the Met has declined repeated requests by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to disclose hundreds of pages of internal papers. The documents give the Met’s private assessment of the botched counter-terrorist operation that led to Jean Charles de Menezes mistakenly being killed by Yard marksmen at Stockwell Underground station last July. The IPCC wants the Yard files handed over before it reviews Blair’s response to claims by the de Menezes family that he made false or misleading statements after the shooting.

The fresh legal tussle has reignited claims by the de Menezes family that the Yard is attempting to cover up its true culpability for the shooting. This weekend Harriet Wistrich, the family’s solicitor, said: “Every time the police attempt to resist providing information in relation to the shooting it creates the impression they have something to hide. If they’ve nothing to hide, why not come forward with it?”

The papers include discussions about how much compensation the Met thinks it should pay to the de Menezes family; the risk that individual officers might face murder or manslaughter charges; the vulnerability of Blair and the Met to an action for civil damages; and whether Special Branch officers altered surveillance logs to cover up the mistaken identification.

De Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot eight times by two Scotland Yard marksmen on a train at Stockwell. The shooting happened on July 22, the day after four suspected Islamist suicide bombers tried to detonate bombs on three Tube trains and a bus.

At the inquest into de Menezes’s death 10 days ago, John Cummins, the senior IPCC investigator, said publicly he had experienced no obstruction from the Met in his inquiry. But behind the scenes, the IPCC has pressed for the Met files at two meetings in the past three weeks. The commission has told Blair it is entitled to them under section 17 of the 2002 Police Reform Act, which gives it the power to demand “all such information and documents” it judges necessary to conduct its inquiries. The Met has declined to surrender the files. Scotland Yard bosses insist the papers are “legally privileged” and they are under no legal obligation to disclose them. One senior source said the discussions had been “cordial” and did not amount to a dispute. He said: “Quite properly, if you are under suspicion and you take legal advice you expect those conversations to be privileged. “But the IPCC thinks section 17 trumps everything. They think they are entitled to everything they want. We’re saying as a point of principle here, no, they are not.”

Behind the scenes, the tension between the Met and the IPCC has been simmering since the day of the shooting. Part of the IPCC’s own file on the killing of de Menezes, showing police blunders, was leaked last September. The file showed how an undercover officer who was supposed to be watching for a suspected terrorist to emerge from a house in Tulse Hill, south London, was relieving himself at the time de Menezes appeared.The disclosures infuriated Blair and led to renewed calls for his resignation. The Crown Prosecution Service has said it hopes to decide by Easter whether any officers will be charged with murder or manslaughter.

Last December the IPCC began a second inquiry after the de Menezes family complained that Blair had misled the public over the shooting. Senior Yard insiders fear this new inquiry could potentially force Blair to resign. It is focusing on comments Blair made at a press conference a few hours after the shooting at which he said: “I understand the man was challenged and refused to obey.” That statement turned out to be false. In a separate statement, cleared by at least three senior officers, the Yard’s press bureau said of de Menezes that “his clothing and his behaviour at the station added to suspicions”. The Met now accepts that there was nothing suspicious about his clothes or behaviour.

A spokeswoman for the IPCC said: “Our investigation is progressing and we are working with the Metropolitan police to ensure we have access to all the necessary material.”

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