Shot Brazilian Had Phoney Visa, Says Home Office (UK)

Shot Brazilian had phoney visa, says Home Office
By Jenny Booth, Times Online

The student visa of Jean Charles de Menezes expired more than two years before he was shot by police, a Home Office spokeswoman said tonight.

The Government also issued a cautiously-worded statement which appeared to indicate that Mr de Menezes had a forged stamp in his passport.

The spokeswoman said: "Mr de Menzes ... applied for leave to remain as a student. This was approved on October 31, 2002, and he was granted leave to remain until June 30, 2003.

"We have no record of any further application or correspondence from Mr de Menezes.

"We have seen a copy of Mr de Menezes’ passport containing a stamp apparently giving him indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

"On investigation, this stamp was not one that was in use by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate on the date given."

Mr de Menezes, 27, a Brazilian national who was working in London as an electrician, was shot dead as ran aboard a northbound Tube train at Stockwell station. Shocked witnesses spoke of the expression of complete panic on his face as police undercover officers, who had trailed from his home in Tulse Hill several miles away under the mistaken belief that he was a suicide bomber, held him down and shot him.

Last night his family accused the police of changing their account of the incident. At first Scotland Yard said that Mr de Menezes had been wearing a heavy jacket despite the warm weather, and had refused to respond to a police challenge, vaulting over the ticket barrier in an apparent attempt to escape.

But his cousin told a press conference yesterday that senior officers at Scotland Yard had now retracted their claims that Mr de Menezes was acting suspiciously, so that officers had no option but to open fire.

Vivien Figueiredo, 22, said police told her that he was wearing a lightweight denim jacket and not a bulky coat that could have hidden an explosive belt underneath. They had also admitted that he used his travelcard to gain access to the station. Ms Figueiredo said: "They are saying he did absolutely nothing wrong when he was killed, so why don’t they say all this publicly?"

Police shot the electrician seven times in the head and once in the shoulder at point-blank range. The family claims that Mr Menezes’s death forced Scotland Yard to change its shoot-to-kill orders. In yesterday’s arrest in Birmingham, the family pointed out that police used a Taser stun gun. Speaking shortly before leaving for Brazil to take Mr Menezes's body home for burial, they said that they wanted to know why a similar weapon was not used last Friday.

Ms Figueiredo also expressed anger at reports that one of the officers involved in the fatal shooting had gone on holiday with his family, paid for by the Metropolitan Police. She said: "It is not right that this person should now be enjoying his holiday when we are suffering."

Alex Pereira, 27, another cousin accompanying the coffin on the flight home, said: "The officer must be brought back and show the world he did something wrong". Senior officers emphasised that the independent investigation into the incident was continuing.

Tomorrow the Stop the War Coalition will hold a vigil marking one week since Mr Menezes’s death, at 1730 BST in Parliament Square. A service will be held at Westminster Cathedral at the same time as his funeral in Brazil.

O.K. Let's review some of the information on this Brazilian so far:

1. Illegal documents/visa.

2. Sends large sums of money home to his family (larger than known income)

3. An electrician by trade... Reportedly installing security alarms in London..

4. Seen either coming from the bombers house or lived there.

5. Running like hell from police.

Could it be he was working for the terrorist helping rig the bombs?

Added more info to #3

"Was he a practicing Muslim?"

Nope.

Here's someone who was:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1693668,00.html

"Shahara Islam was born in Whitechapel, London, in 1985. She died in the Tavistock Square bus explosion on July 7, 2005, aged 20.

Since the terrorist attacks on London last week, Shahara Islam’s photograph has been widely seen on newspapers and television broadcasts not just in Britain but around the world.

A devout believer in Islam who also embraced modern Western culture and society, she was the very example of a confident young British Muslim woman, rightly described by one newspaper as the “true face of Islam in London”. Murdered by bombers who claimed to act in the name of her faith, she has come to represent what London has lost.

Living in Plaistow in the East End of London, she had worked for the Co-operative Bank for 18 months. Her mother, Romena, and father, Shamsul, are devoutly observant Muslims who came to Whitechapel and the surrounding areas in the 1960s from what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Shahara Akther Islam was born in Whitechapel and was educated at Barking Abbey Comprehensive School, where she sat her A-level examinations two years ago. Her good results meant that, like many 18-year-olds, she was faced with the decision of whether or not to attend university. Eventually she decided that she was attracted more strongly to the world of work, and she had recently started her first job, with the Co-operative Bank, at its branch in Islington, North London, where she had been working as a cashier.

Shahara Islam managed to combine both her family’s culture and her life in the melting-pot of London with seemingly effortless ease. She attended her local mosque on Fridays, but was equally at home enjoying Western fashions and designer clothes as well as an independent lifestyle. To her there was no contradiction in respecting and enjoying both traditions.

She carried two mobile phones, joking to friends and family that she needed both because she talked so much.

On Thursday she had a long-overdue dental appointment scheduled for the afternoon, and her original intention had been to take the day off. Instead, she chose to go to work and leave early.

As well as her parents she leaves a brother and a sister, both in their teens. Other relatives include her uncle, Nazmul Hasan, whom, it is thought, she tried to telephone at 9.47am on July 7. “I didn’t get to the phone in time,” Hasan said. “I didn’t know anything was wrong then. There was no voice, just the sound of people talking, and commotion in the street. Then it went dead.”

It was at 9.47am that the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square was bombed, killing at least 13 people."

This was done by people who didn't care who their victims were. Regardless of whether he was Catholic, Jew or Muslim he's now just another victim of the bombers.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.