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Costa Rica has promised to ask for British police help
on the vanishing of British journalist Michael Dixon, following a
personal intervention by UK consular affairs minister Jeremy Browne
LONDON, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Costa
Rica's Vice President and Vice Foreign Minister promised to take the
step at a face-to-face meeting in San Jose with Jeremy Browne in
October.
Browne in a letter to the Dixon family dated 27
October confirmed that: "I raised Michael's case with the Vice President
and Vice Foreign Minister at my meeting ... [they] expressed their
sympathy with you and your family and confirmed again that any new
evidence would be investigated. They also agreed to ask the Costa Rican
police to issue a formal invitation to the Metropolitan Police to help
review the information available."
The Dixon family wants UK police to send
investigators to Costa Rica as they did to Portugal in September in the
Madeleine McCann case.
Browne in his letter warned, however: "It is ...
for the Metropolitan Police to decide the extent to which they can
become involved."
Michael Dixon, a British journalist resident in
Belgium, vanished after leaving his hotel room in Tamarindo, Costa Rica,
on 18 October 2009. The Costa Rica police initially claimed he drowned.
It later put the investigation on hold despite indications he was the
victim of a violent crime.
Michael's mother, Lynn Dixon, said: "We want to
thank Costa Rica for this important decision. I can't imagine that the
Met would let us down by saying No."
Michael's brother, David Dixon, added: "We've been
trying to look for Michael on our own for the last two years. I've been
to Tamarindo several times. I've spoken to witnesses who say they saw
him that night. But it's a dangerous place - I'm concerned for my own
safety and I don't have the resources to do this properly. The Met is
our only hope."
According to the British foreign office, 28,000 UK
nationals visit Costa Rica each year. Twelve other foreign nationals
have either gone missing or were murdered there in the past two years.
Most of the cases have gone unsolved.
BROWNE letter to Dixon family:
SOURCE RISI UBM
Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
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