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The Oporto Prosecutor has doubts about the legality of the team that was
created by the PJ. He has informed [Attorney General] Pinto Monteiro
about the case.
The Judiciary Police (PJ) created a team for the Maddie case, with
officers from Oporto, without informing the Public Ministry. The
situation is generating discomfort, because it is seen as a dissimulated
way for the PJ to reopen an archived case, which can only be reopened
with new evidence and under the decision of the Public Ministry.
SOL was able to find out that the district attorney general of Oporto,
Alberto Pinto Nogueira, has formally questioned the North Directory of
the PJ, in order to find out for what reason officers from Oporto were
drafted to investigate a crime that happened in the Algarve. The
magistrate reminded the PJ of the fact that the competence to open or to
reopen an investigation lies with the Public Ministry and not with the
Judiciary Police.
Attorney General did not know about team
Pinto Nogueira also wanted to know who authorized an investigation that
mostly resembles an inquiry into what has been done by the team that
initially dealt with the disappearance of the little English girl. This
is due to the fact that there is no legal framework whatsoever for the
creation of this team.
Therefore, all of the magistrate’s doubts – he only found out about the
existence of this team through the media – have been sent to the
Republic’s Attorney General (AG), Pinto Monteiro.
The AG’s office has said that he didn’t know about this new PJ team
either and that he shares the doubts that have been raised by Pinto
Nogueira, asking to be kept informed about the Judiciary Police’s
replies.
After having been confronted with a communication from Pinto Nogueira,
Joao Batista Romao, the head of the PJ’s North Directory, forwarded the
district attorney general of Oporto’s questions to the Judiciary
Police’s National Directory. Pedro do Carmo, the joint national
director, then explained to Pinto Nogueira that this team is not
performing new investigations into the case.
Pedro do Carmo told SOL the same, repeating that “the team is not
investigating, it is analyzing collected data”. And despite stating that
both the prosecutor in Portimao who heads the process and the district
attorney in Evora know about the existence of this team, he admits that
“it wasn’t even necessary to inform them, they only had to see the news
in the papers”.
As far as SOL was able to find out, Pinto Nogueira, after receiving
clarification from the PJ, made it clear that all responsibility,
including financial responsibility, that would be originated by this new
team would be taken into account by the district attorney’s office.
Nonetheless, this is an issue that Pedro do Carmo equally devalues:
“These are PJ officers, the Judiciary Police pays their salary,
obviously”. Nevertheless, the joint national director does not explain
if this team is exclusively working on the Maddie case, if there is a
deadline for this work or even how many officers it is composed of.
“These are operational issues that can only be defined by their
coordinator, Helena Monteiro”, he says.
Pedro do Carmo further assured SOL that the new team is not evaluating
the information that has been collected by the Scotland Yard – where a
team of 37 policemen collects and analyses tip-offs concerning the
whereabouts of Madeleine McCann, through an initiative of the English
prime minster, David Cameron.
Pedro do Carmo stresses that “what is being done is the re-analysis of
what was investigated by the PJ at that time”. It remains unclear
whether or not the analyzed material includes the 195 new leads that the
Scotland Yard says it has about the case: “Only the English Police can
speak about that. These are two independent teams at work, although
there is permanent communication”.
Different goal in the United Kingdom
Nonetheless, the goal seems to be quite different in the United Kingdom,
where Andy Redwood, the inspector who leads the English team, has made
it very clear that “reopening the investigation is the only way to find
out what happened to Madeleine and to close the case”. Last week, the
Scotland Yard announced these 195 new leads and publicised a portrait of
how Maddie might look today, five years after she disappeared in Praia
da Luz.
Nevertheless, nobody has explained what this profusion of leads is
composed of. The McCann couple’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, says that
these pieces of information result from an analysis of approximately
1200 pages of information and that “all of the material has been sent to
the Portuguese authorities that have allegedly only analysed
approximately one quarter of what they received.
Rogerio Alves, the McCanns’ lawyer in Portugal, says he also does not
know the contents of these investigative possibilities. “One can only
speak about the relevance of each one, with deep knowledge of them”, he
argues, adding that he is still waiting to receive all of this material.
With caution, the jurist recalls that “one can only ask for the
reopening of the process if there is a very concrete piece of evidence”.
Deposition by French couple is one of the leads
At that point in time, Rogerio Alves assures, the family will not oppose
a reconstitution of the night of the disappearance – “I have been to the
process once already, saying that the parents would be available”, he
says – but he will not request it, either. “So many years later, of what
interest could a reconstitution be?” – he questions.
SOL was able to find out that one piece of information that was sent by
the English police to the PJ is one more deposition by a French couple
on holiday in Nerja (Spain), who reported that they “spoke to a man on
the street who had indicated that Madeleine was being kept nearby by an
adoptive mother”.
Even with vague leads, Maddie’s parents are determined not to let the
story die. This Wednesday, Kate and Gerry held a press conference in
London, which was attended by 50 journalists from all over the world.
The couple used the opportunity to publicise what they believe to be
their daughter’s new image – who will be eight years old if she is still
alive.
“There is a real possibility that Madeleine can still be found alive”,
Kate McCann stated in an interview to Lusa [news agency].
Kate launches new book
The McCanns did not wish to use their meeting with the press to talk
about money. But the spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, believes that “sooner
or later it will be necessary to resume the raising of money” for the
fund that was created in 2008 to finance the search for Maddie.
According to a report from D&B – a company that performs financial
analysis -, Madeleine’s Fund, Leaving No Stone Unturned, presently only
has a net capital of 125 thousand pounds. The fund once owned over one
million, but the money that comes in is less, as each year goes by, and
in 2011 general expenses reached almost 27 thousand pounds.
Mitchell ascertains that “the donations from private people are less and
less” and that nowadays the fund lives from the money that the couple
and their friends received as compensation from libel suits that were
filed against newspapers. That value is increased by the author’s rights
from the book that was written by Kate McCann, which Maddie’s parents’
spokesman asserts “has sold quite well”.
In order to keep money flowing into the fund’s coffers, Kate will launch
a new version of the book on Thursday – this time, as a paperback – with
“one more chapter, in order to update the information”.
Five years after Maddie disappeared in the Algarve, Clarence Mitchell,
number 10 Downing Street’s former communications advisor and a former
BBC journalist, is still working for the McCanns “full time, with the
agreement of the communications company” that presently employs him.
Gerry is still working as a cardiologist at Leicester Hospital, where he
returned to in 2008. But Kate never worked in medicine again. Her days,
Clarence Mitchell explains, are dedicated “to taking care of the twin
children and working on the campaign to find Madeleine”. Maddie’s
mother’s agenda includes working with organisations that are dedicated
to finding missing children and “meetings with the authorities”.
The McCanns have also often returned to Portugal. Their last visit was
on the 10th of April, when Gerry and Kate went to Praia da Luz. Mitchell
does not wish to reveal details about what they did there. On their
passage through Lisbon, the couple had breakfast with Rogerio Alves, in
order to be informed about the course of the lawsuits that are still
under way in Portuguese Justice.
Murat left Praia da Luz
The person who does not wish to hear about the case anymore is Robert
Murat, the Englishman who lived in Praia da Luz who was the first
arguido in the process, after a journalist from Sky News launched
suspicions about the man who was always around the media that were
covering the case and offered his services as a translator.
Nowadays, Murat does not live in Praia da Luz anymore. He has moved into
a house in Lagos and does not want to speak to journalists anymore. His
lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, assures that the Englishman “has never
worked again”. In 2008, the British subject received compensation of
approximately 750 thousand euro, paid by four English media groups that
were accused of libelling him.
Another person who has not returned to work is the inspector who headed
the PJ’s investigation, Goncalo Amaral, who refuses to make a statement
this week. “I do not take part in celebrations. I will speak later”, he
told SOL, two days after he went on TVI [evening newscast] to devalue
the 195 leads from Scotland Yard. “It is very easy to collect leads from
sightings and mediums”, he commented. |
