BRITAIN:Sir Ian Blair's leadership of London's Metropolitan police force (the Met) is to face further scrutiny in the wake of a damaging report into events surrounding the shooting of the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005.
The Metropolitan Police Authority, which oversees the running of Britain's biggest force, will examine why Sir Ian, the force's commissioner, was kept "almost totally uninformed" for at least 24 hours about concerns that an innocent man had been killed in south London the day after the failed July 21st suicide bombings.
A report published yesterday by the Independent Police Complaints Commission highlighted "serious weaknesses" in the Met's communication of critical information and concluded that the public and the family of the innocent Brazilian were "misled" by the Met's statements following his fatal shooting on July 22nd, 2005.
It suggests that Sir Ian may have been kept out of the loop not just for 24 hours but possibly even for five months, resulting in him giving misleading information in interviews with two British national newspapers.
Although Sir Ian was cleared of all allegations that he lied to the public about what he knew of Mr Menezes, an innocent man, following the fatal shooting, the report paints a picture of a commissioner who was kept totally in the dark by senior officers about key details of the dead man's identity despite repeated demands by him for information.
While everyone else seemed to know about the growing rumours and evidence that Mr Menezes was not one of the four suicide bombers being hunted, Sir Ian remained totally ignorant.
The rumour that the dead man was a Brazilian electrician or tourist spread quickly through the Met in the hours after Mr Menezes was shot dead. It reached officers who were on a day off at Lord's cricket ground, a detective at Marylebone police station who heard there had been a "massive cock-up ... involving a Brazilian tourist". A Met secretary even overheard the words "they got the wrong man" and "Brazilian".
But Sir Ian apparently remained oblivious.
The IPCC launched its inquiry after the family of Mr Menezes complained that Sir Ian and other senior officers made inaccurate public statements about Mr Menezes and his actions.
The IPCC report reserved its most serious criticism for assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, the country's top counter-terrorism officer. His future now hangs in the balance as he awaits a decision on whether he will face disciplinary action after the IPCC found he "deliberately withheld vital" information, and "chose to mislead" the public and Sir Ian.
Sir Ian made clear yesterday that had the IPCC found the allegations against him to be substantiated he would have resigned.
"If I had lied I would not be fit to hold this office. I did not lie," he said. Of Mr Hayman, he said: "he retains my full support in the crucially important job he undertakes for this country."
Mr Blair apologised again to the family of Mr Menezes.