Officer's complaint about shooting inquiry rejected

The officer took offence to comments made by the commission's deputy chairman, John Wadham, last week, when he disclosed that Sir Ian Blair had resisted the setting up of the inquiry. He said the fledgling commission had won an "important victory" for its independence in overcoming the Met's opposition.

Sir Ian had written to the Home Office in the hours after the shooting inquiring about having an internal police rather than an IPCC inquiry, because he was concerned that secrets about anti-terrorist tactics could be made public. At the time the Met wrongly believed that officers had shot dead a suicide bomber.

Mr Wadham said: "The Metropolitan Police Service initially resisted us taking on the investigation but we overcame that. It was an important victory for our independence. This dispute has caused delay in us taking over the investigation but we have worked hard to recover the lost ground."

Last night, a spokeswoman from the IPCC said a complaint was received the following day from a Metropolitan Police officer - reportedly a firearms officer - objecting to the comments. The complaint was rejected on 24 August by the chairman of the IPCC, Nick Hardwick, and not deemed to undermine the continuing independent investigation into the incident.

The IPCC spokeswoman said: "Nick Hardwick has considered the complaint made about the comments that John Wadham made. People are free to criticise and disagree with us but this is not a conduct matter and therefore no further action will be taken."

As news of the complaint emerged, senior Brazilian officials examining Me de Menezes' death were preparing to return home after completing their four-day fact-finding mission in London. Yesterday morning the delegation met the Southwark coroner, John Sampson, who will ultimately hold the inquest into the death of the innocent Brazilian.

Meanwhile, an eye-witness revealed that officers fired at Mr de Menezes for over 30 seconds at three-second intervals when they killed him at Stockwell Tube station on 22 July.

According to The Guardian Sue Thomason, a journalist, ran for her life, fearing that the police officers were terrorists who had opened fire on commuters.