LONDON - JURORS at an inquest into the death of a Brazilian mistakenly killed by anti-terror police in London reached an open verdict Friday, meaning they did not decide if the death was legal or illegal.

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.

Under British law an open verdict is a finding of death without stating the cause.

Mr 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 Mr De Menezes's block of flats. -- AFP