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Brazilians meet police watchdog
RELATEDSPECIAL REPORTQUICKVOTEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England (CNN) -- Brazilian officials looking into the fatal police shooting of a Brazilian man mistaken for a terrorist on the London Tube have arrived to meet the head of the police watchdog agency investigating the death. The Brazilians were hearing an update on the progress of the investigation from Nick Hardwick, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). They will give a news conference later Wednesday. The officials -- Ambassador Manoel Gomes Pereira, Dr Marcio Garcia, from the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, and Dr Wagner Goncalves, of the Brazilian Federal Prosecutor's Office -- also met senior lawyers from Britain's Crown Prosecution Service. They were discussing the death of electrician Jean Charles de Menezes with Chris Newell, CPS director of casework, and Carmen Dowd, head of its specialist and complex crime division. The delegation said Tuesday that Scotland Yard did not try to cover up the truth about the shooting of de Menezes. However, the officials admitted their government had been left "perplexed" when information from the independent inquiry was leaked last week, reigniting the controversy over the affair. De Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder by police officers on July 22, the day after attempted bombings on London's transport network. London Mayor Ken Livingstone Wednesday expressed his "absolute confidence" in embattled Scotland Yard chief Ian Blair amid fresh claims about the police operation that led to the death of de Menezes, the UK's Press Association reported. Livingstone blamed Blair's "disgruntled" colleagues and his "many enemies" for trying to undermine him, but insisted the Commissioner's reforms would reduce the chances of another terrorist strike. The mayor also professed his "total" trust in Comissionar Blair, despite calls for his resignation over the shooting of de Menezes. His comments came after reports alleged that the police operation which led to the death of the 27-year-old was hampered because the officers' radios did not work underground. The communication breakdown also meant they were unable to take orders from senior officers at Scotland Yard, the Daily Mail reported. A source told the newspaper that the firearms team and the surveillance team were effectively "operating blind" once they descended on to the Tube. Undercover officers sitting next to de Menezes decided he was not a threat, but could not relay this message to marksmen, according to The Times. Livingstone admitted that the shooting of de Menezes was a "terrible mistake", but he defended Comissioner Blair, describing him to the BBC as "the best news that London policing has got." 
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