Family of slain Brazilian rejects apology

RIO DE JANEIRO – The family of a Brazilian electrician shot dead by London police who mistook him for a suicide bombing suspect rejected the apologies of British authorities and is considering filing a lawsuit against them, a family member said.

“We cannot accept (the apologies). They’re pigs.They shoot first and kill an innocent person, then they say ‘sorry,’” Vivian Menezes, cousin of deceased 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes, told Brazil’s Globo News television from London.Patricia Silva y Vivian Menezes, who lived with Menezes in his London flat, said his immediate family was planning to sue the British government for the electrician’s wrongful death.Another cousin, Alex Alves Pereira, who shared the same flat, identified Menezes at the morgue after he was shot eight times in the head Friday at London’s Stockwell subway station after being chased by plainclothes police.British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that Britain was “desperately sorry” for the death of the Brazilian, whom police mistook for a suspected suicide bomber and who had refused to obey instructions.”It’s all over for me,” the victim’s father, Matosinho Otoni da Silva, 66, told the news programme.”I hope the police officers will be punished because they killed an innocent person.I cannot forgive them at all,” he added.The mother, Maria Otoni, who was hospitalised with a nervous breakdown after she received the tragic news, said her son had had a premonition all last week: “He was afraid something bad was going to happen to him.”Menezes’ hometown of Gonzaga, in Brazil’s south-eastern Minais Gerais state, held a funeral march and observed a minute of silence for him on Monday.- Nampa-AFPThey’re pigs.They shoot first and kill an innocent person, then they say ‘sorry,’” Vivian Menezes, cousin of deceased 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes, told Brazil’s Globo News television from London.Patricia Silva y Vivian Menezes, who lived with Menezes in his London flat, said his immediate family was planning to sue the British government for the electrician’s wrongful death.Another cousin, Alex Alves Pereira, who shared the same flat, identified Menezes at the morgue after he was shot eight times in the head Friday at London’s Stockwell subway station after being chased by plainclothes police.British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that Britain was “desperately sorry” for the death of the Brazilian, whom police mistook for a suspected suicide bomber and who had refused to obey instructions.”It’s all over for me,” the victim’s father, Matosinho Otoni da Silva, 66, told the news programme.”I hope the police officers will be punished because they killed an innocent person.I cannot forgive them at all,” he added.The mother, Maria Otoni, who was hospitalised with a nervous breakdown after she received the tragic news, said her son had had a premonition all last week: “He was afraid something bad was going to happen to him.”Menezes’ hometown of Gonzaga, in Brazil’s south-eastern Minais Gerais state, held a funeral march and observed a minute of silence for him on Monday.- Nampa-AFP