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Menezes 'was only carrying a mobile and a newspaper'
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent23 Oct 2008
A DETECTIVE told an inquest today that he only saw Jean Charles de Menezes carrying a mobile phone and a newspaper before he was shot dead by armed police.
But the officer, identified by the codename Ivor, told the hearing he could not have ruled out the 27-year-old Brazilian being a suicide bomber.
Ivor was the closest surveillance officer behind Mr de Menezes as he boarded a train at Stockwell Underground station on 22 July, 2005, the inquest into his death has heard.
Ivor said: "Effectively, all I saw him carrying openly was a mobile phone and a newspaper on the train."
Michael Mansfield QC, for the de Menezes family, told the inquest the electrician had his jacket undone "at all times" and was not carrying a bag.
He added that a suicide bomber wearing a device on his body would generally detonate it by reaching into a pocket to connect wires to a battery.
Ivor told the inquest he could not remember seeing Mr de Menezes put his hands in his pockets, but added police could not rule out terrorists having other kinds of devices.
The surveillance officer said he kept Mr de Menezes under "very close observation", but admitted: "There was nothing I could confirm."
The inquest continues.
