Portugal’s attorney general said yesterday he will make a crunch decision on Monday that will decide their fate.

After receiving advice from prosecutors, the legal chief Fernando Pinto Monteiro will announce what happens next over the police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.

“The Maddie case will have a solution on Monday, and you will be informed of it,” he said.

He will choose whether to bring charges, ask police to carry out even more inquiries or close the case for good. The decision could finally clear Gerry and Kate McCann of all blame and end the whispering campaign against them. 

A source said: “Clearing their names at last will be a big weight off their minds if it happens – but they are still no closer to the truth on where their daughter is.”

Madeleine vanished from the family's holiday apartment at Praia da Luz, Portugal, just days before her fourth birthday on May 3 last year.

Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest investigations into a missing person ever seen in Europe.

But despite a huge search, no trace has ever been found. Recent reports in Portugal have suggested Kate and Gerry could remain “arguido” forever.

Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said shelving the case would be the “worst possible

scenario”.

He said: “It is what Kate and Gerry have always feared – that police would simply wrap the case up saying they could not do any more, without clearing Madeleine's parents of any involvement.”

Kate and Gerry, both 40, from Rothley, Leics, have faced more than a year of anguish as they have struggled to come to terms with life without Madeleine. For the sake of their three-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, they have tried to keep up a pretence of a normal life while travelling round the world to drum up support for their campaign to find their daughter. 

They recently spoke of their agony at taking their first family holiday without Madeleine, claiming it was “incredibly difficult”.

The heartbroken couple have also managed to find the time to campaign for a US-style “Amber Alert” scheme to help stop child disappearances.

The source added: “They have been worried that blundering Portuguese police would try and write off the case as unsolved – but they are determined not to let that happen.”