LONDON (AFP) – The family of a Brazilian mistakenly killed by police in London slammed an inquest into his death Friday as a “whitewash,” after jurors returned an inconclusive “open” verdict.

Jurors at the inquest into the death of Jean Charles De Menezes in 2005 had been barred from returning a verdict of unlawful killing by the coroner, who gave them only the options of lawful killing or an open verdict.
The jury did challenge police claims over the killing, in particular rejecting the suggestion that De Menezes had moved towards a police marksman in the moments before he was shot.
De Menezes was shot seven times in the head at a London Underground train station on July 22, 2005, the day after a failed attempt to replicate the attacks of July 7 when four suicide bombers killed 52 people.
Police had followed the 27-year-old electrician onto a train in the mistaken belief that he was failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman, who lived in De Menezes's block of flats.
The family, who walked out of the inquest in protest last week when coroner Michael Wright barred the jury from giving an unlawful killing verdict, voiced outrage at the outcome.
“After three months of evidence, 100 witnesses and millions of pounds, the coroner, Sir Michael Wright, has presided over a complete whitewash,” the family said in a statement.
“He has failed on every count of the purpose of an inquest investigation,” they added.
The jurors challenged police claims about the killing in answering a series of questions put to them by the coroner.
Specifically they rejected a firearms officer's claim that he shouted “armed police” before opening fire at De Menezes, and said the Brazilian did not move towards one of the officers before he was pinned to his seat and killed.
London's Metropolitan Police was heavily criticized in a report in August 2007 on the killing, although then police chief Ian Blair escaped censure.
Over the course of the inquest, jurors heard more than seven weeks of evidence from around 100 witnesses, including the two officers who shot De Menezes at Stockwell station.
One of the two, identified only by the codename C12, broke down in court when he testified that he was convinced the Brazilian man was a suicide bomber about to strike.
Separately, another officer, who was only identified as James, admitted that obvious “failings” led to De Menezes's shooting, and added that he could have been stopped safely before he was killed.
The coroner asked jurors to consider four questions, in addition to the two available verdicts.
These concerned whether the police gave warning before shooting De Menezes; whether he stood up, or moved towards one of the armed officers before being grabbed; and which specific factors led to his death.