A
judge at Lisbon's Civil Court
has banned any further publication of The
Truth Of
The Lie by Goncalo Amaral
A Portuguese judge has banned further sales or publications of a former
policeman's book which claimed
Madeleine McCann
is dead, a spokesman
for the missing girl's parents said.
Clarence Mitchell
said
Kate and Gerry McCann
were ''absolutely
delighted'' that a judge at Lisbon's main Civil Court had banned any
further publication of The Truth Of The Lie by
Goncalo
Amaral.
He said the book had hampered the search for missing Madeleine and added
to her parents' distress.
Mr Amaral worked on the
investigation
into three-year-old
Madeleine's disappearance from an
apartment
in
Praia da Luz in May 2007 during a
family holiday.
He was removed from the investigation after criticising
British
police.
The
injunction,
granted today after a hearing last week, means he has to ensure that all
unsold copies of the book are removed from shops and warehouses across
Europe or he faces a 1,000 euro-a-day (£877) fine.
Mr Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry McCann are absolutely delighted that
the judge in Portugal has done the right thing by granting this
injunction."
He said Mr Amaral's claims that he believed Madeleine was dead were
"threatening the search".
Mr Amaral said he did not believe the McCanns' account that Madeleine
was taken while they were eating with friends nearby.
Mr Mitchell said the Mr Amaral's claims had "added to their distress".
In a statement, Kate and Gerry McCann said: "We are pleased with the
judge's decision today preventing further distribution and sale of Mr
Amaral's book and
DVD
- The Truth Of The Lie.
"Mr Amaral's central thesis has no evidence whatsoever to support it. To
claim, as he did, that Madeleine is dead, and that we, as her parents,
were in some way involved with her disappearance has caused our family
incredible distress and it continues to do so.
"Without doubt, Madeleine will have suffered as a result of the negative
effect this book and DVD will have had on the search for her.
Sean and Amelie
need protection, too, from such awful claims."
Twins Sean and Amelie, now four, are the couple's younger children who
were also in the holiday apartment when Madeleine went missing.
The statement ended by saying: "Hopefully this injunction today will go
a long way towards reducing further unnecessary and unjust distress to
us all and allow people to concentrate completely on what is important -
finding Madeleine." |
