London police deny report of compensation offer for Menezes

London, Aug. 20 (AP): London's police force today denied a newspaper report that it offered US$1 million in compensation to the family of a Brazilian man killed by officers who mistook him for a terrorist.

Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot by undercover police who followed him onto a subway train on July 22, two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 other people on the London subway system.

The Daily Mail reported today that John Yates, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, made the initial offer of compensation during a visit to Brazil two weeks ago.

"We will not be bought off. We will not be silenced," the man's parents, Matozinho and Maria de Menezes, said, according to the newspaper.

London's Metropolitan Police rejected the report. "The only discussions we have had so far with the family of Jean Charles de Menezes have been about initial expenses and we strongly refute any suggestion that a figure anywhere in the region of one million dollars has been offered as compensation," the force said in a statement today.

A cousin of the slain man yesterday called for the resignation of Sir Ian Blair, the chief of the London force.

"They have killed Jean and then told lies," Alessandro Pereira said, shedding tears at a nationally televised news conference in London.

LUCH 2005