Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

Sniff... sniff sniff...

It smells rotten.... the corpse of an innocent being pecked... flayed... traduced... for deep political ends.

Here's the letter from the Menezes family to David Cameron and ccd to Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband, and Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs select committee. The letter calls upon the PM to extend the remit to the inquiry into the phone hacking scandal to scrutinise whether police officers involved in the Menezes investigation were leaking information to the press, either for financial benefit or in an effort to defend the reputation of the Metropolitan police.

In the letter, the family say the telephone number of a member of the Menezes family was found on the phone hacking list of the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. The family's legal team have now submitted the names and telephone numbers of others who may have been potential targets of illegal phone hacking by Mulcaire on behalf of News of the World, including other relatives of Jean Charles de Menezes, representatives from the Justice4Jean campaign and members of their legal team.

The family say they have a "deep concern" about the relationship between Andy Hayman, the now-retired police officer in charge of the first phone hacking inquiry, and News International. Since leaving the police, Hayman has written for the Times, which is owned by NI.

The Menezes family point to the significant number of leaks relating to the Menezes case that appear to come from police sources and call on Cameron to do everything within his power to ensure that this issue is thoroughly investigated.

A spokesperson for Justice4Jean said:

The Menezes family are deeply pained and to find their phones may have been hacked at a time at which they were at their most vulnerable and bereaved. They are bewildered as to why the police did not approach them with this information earlier, and fear the police may be attempting to cover up their own wrongdoing once more relating to this case.

Here is the text of their letter:

Dear Mr Cameron,

Re: News International phone hacking and relationship with the police

We are writing to you to express our deep concern about reports exposing the relationship between Andy Hayman and News International and how this may relate to the media coverage and investigation into the death of our cousin, Jean Charles de Menezes, after his death on 22 July 2005.

Our lawyers have contacted officers involved in Operation Weeting who confirmed yesterday that the phone number of Alex Pereira, one of Jean Charles's cousins, was found on the phone hacking list of the private investigator Glen Mulcaire. Our legal team have now submitted the names and telephone numbers of others who may have been potential targets of illegal phone hacking by Mulcaire on behalf of News of the World, including other relatives, representatives from the Justice4Jean campaign and members of the legal team. We are currently awaiting information from the police to confirm whether any of these numbers appear on the list and whether there is evidence that their voicemail messages were hacked.

Should this be the case, it would present an egregious and unwarranted intrusion of privacy into the lives of our grieving family and a deliberate attempt to curtail our fundamental right to seek redress for the unlawful killing of our cousin. With the sixth anniversary of Jean's death approaching next week, we write to urge you to do everything within your power to ensure the police swiftly investigate this sensitive matter and report back to our legal team as quickly as possible.

We would also like to draw your attention to another aspect of the investigation of our cousin's death, which we believe warrants further attention. In the Independent Police Complaints Commission's 'Stockwell 2' investigation, the practice of police 'off the record briefings' to the media was scrutinised and the IPCC found that Andy Hayman had deliberately 'misled the public' over claims that person who had been shot dead by the police on 22 July 2005 was one of the four men who were being sought in connection with the attempted bombings of the previous day.

Recent coverage of the police's role in investigating allegations of phone hacking, including Mr Hayman's evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, have highlighted his close relationship with News International, including potential financial links. We are conscious that the newspapers owned by News International provided some of the most virulent and often misleading coverage around Jean's death and its aftermath.

Throughout the investigation, misinformation continued to be leaked to the press that attempted to besmirch Jean's character. The publication of these lies about his actions on the day of the shooting included false allegations that Jean Charles was wearing a bulky jacket, had failed to stop after a police warning, had jumped the ticket barriers or had acted suspiciously in the moments leading up to his shooting. They also related to untrue allegations about his immigration status and even attempts to link him to a rape allegation that could only have emanated from police sources.

There was also a conscious attempt to smear the Justice4Jean campaign by attacking individuals involved in supporting the Menezes family. Considering what is now known about Andy Hayman's relationship with News International, we would like the inquiry into this scandal to extend its remit to scrutinise whether police officers involved in the Menezes investigation were leaking information to the press, either for financial benefit or in a vain effort to deflect criticism from the actions of the Metropolitan Police which had led to Jeans death.

These issues are of extreme importance to our family, whilst the accountability of the police and how politically sensitive criminal investigations are reported in the media are clearly a matter of public interest. We hope you will take these issues forward on our behalf.

Yours sincerely

Patricia da Silva Armani, cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes
Vivian Figueiredo, cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes
Alessandro Pereira, cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes

Cc Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Rt Hon, Keith Vaz MP

12.53pm: Yasmin Khan, a spokeswoman for the Justice4Jean campaign, told the Guardian's Sam Jones that they had recently discovered that Glenn Mulcaire's list included the phone number of Jean-Charles's cousin, Alex Pereira:

We were told yesterday. We approached police last week and they got back to us yesterday with Alex's number and told us to submit the numbers of family members and members of the campaign.