THE student visa of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead when he was mistaken for a suicide bomber last Friday, expired more than two years ago, a Home Office spokeswoman said last night. The Government also issued a cautiously worded statement indicating that Mr Menezes, who died in Stockwell Underground station, in South London, had a forged stamp in his passport.

The disclosure goes some way to explaining the accounts of bystanders and police officers who said that Mr Menezes fled when he was challenged by armed plainclothes officers.

The part-time electrician was pinned to the floor of the Underground station by armed officers and shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.

The Home Office spokeswoman said: “Mr Menezes . . . applied for leave to remain as a student. This was approved on October 31, 2002, and he was granted leave to remain until June 30, 2003. We have no record of any further application or correspondence from Mr Menezes,” she added.

The spokeswoman went on to imply that the stamp that was used to verify that Mr Menezes had been granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain was a forgery.

“We have seen a copy of Mr Menezes’s passport containing a stamp apparently giving him indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

“On investigation, this stamp was not one that was in use by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate on the date given,” she said.

The timing of the Home Office’s disclosure will enrage the family of Mr Menezes, who are preparing to bury their son in Brazil. They have demanded a full inquiry into his death and that the police officer responsible be held accountable.

Family members claimed on Wednesday that Scotland Yard officers have changed their accounts of Mr Menezes’s shooting and have retracted reports that he had acted suspiciously, ignored shouted warnings and vaulted ticket barriers.

The body of Mr Menezes arrived in Brazil yesterday and will be buried this afternoon. His coffin was accompanied by three of the cousins he shared a flat with in London.

Among those who met the flight on its arrival in São Paulo was Andrew Henderson, Britain’s Consul-General in the city.

An official from Brazil’s Foreign Ministry told reporters at the airport that Brazil was in negotiations with the authorities in Britain about sending a team to observe the investigation into the killing of Mr Menezes. After arriving in São Paulo, the body was transferred to a plane belonging to the Brazilian Air Force for the 110-minute flight to the city of Governador Valadares in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

The coffin was draped in the Brazilian flag and accorded traditional local honours by being carried on top of a fireengine for the last 50 miles of its journey to the town of Gonzaga, where Mr Menezes was born.

Around 5,000 people — virtually the entire town — massed in the streets of Gonzaga, many weeping and waving improvised white flags of surrender.

Signs denouncing “Death by Mistake” and saying “England: don’t fight terrorism with terror,” could be read along the town’s main avenue en route to its only church. It was decked out in the green and gold of the Brazilian flag.

After taking advice from Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, there will be no British presence at the funeral.

The British Ambassador will instead send flowers.

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