Brazil voiced "unhappiness" on Saturday at the British authorities' decision not to punish any of the 15 police officers involved in the shooting death of a Brazilian man they had mistaken for a suicide bomber.
"The foreign ministry expresses its unhappiness with the decision of the Independent Police Complaints Commission [IPCC] which absolves four senior officers involved in the death of the Brazilian citizen Jean Charles de Menezes," a government statement said.
The commission said on Friday the four officers, including the commander of the operation, Cressida Dick, should not face internal disciplinary action over the shooting.
Eleven other Metropolitan Police officers initially questioned over the shooting had already been told they would not face punishment.
De Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot seven times in the head at close range in an underground train in London, two weeks after the July 2005 London bombings in which 52 innocent people died.
The police were searching for four men who tried and failed to blow themselves up in copycat attempted bombings.
The Metropolitan Police was fined on Nov. 1 for breaching health and safety laws in the case. But the jury in that proceeding added a clause to the verdict saying that "no personal culpability" should be attached to Dick.
The case will now be concluded at an separate standard inquest into De Menezes' death itself.
His family said the ruling was a "scandal."
"It is entirely premature for the IPCC to do this before an inquest where vital evidence about the actions of these officers could come to light," said De Menezes' cousin Vivian Figuierdo.
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