PORTUGAL’S top policeman is set to quit over the Madeleine McCann investigation.

Alipio Ribeiro is expected to resign as the head of the Judicial Police after slamming officers for acting “hastily’’ in naming her parents as suspects.

He said the decision was rushed through without proper assessment.

At the time he was heavily criticised by police union chief Carlos Anjos.

Portuguese newspapers said he would remain in the job while a successor was appointed.

Police union officials said Ribeiro’s position had become untenable after he also called for changes to policing in Portugal.

Sacked

He will be the second officer to lose his job over the case. Former inquiry chief Goncalo Amaral, 48, was sacked from the investigation after criticising British police for siding with Kate McCann, 40, and husband Gerry, 39.
He is now writing a book about the Madeleine probe.

One of Portugal’s biggest newspapers Diario de Noticias said yesterday the most important factor in Ribeiro’s departure was the row surrounding his comments over the McCann investigation.

SCREENSHOT

The paper said: “The director cannot call into question the work of the institution over which he presides.”

Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 last year. It will be her fifth birthday next Monday.