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The Attorney General’s Office has
ascertained, this Thursday, that “no
request for mutual judiciary assistance
has been received” from the British
authorities, within the scope of the
investigation that has been opened in
London into the disappearance of
Madeleine McCann in the Algarve, in
2007.
In a reply to news agency LUSA, the
Attorney General’s Office clarified that
“the obtaining of evidence, in Portugal,
presupposes the presentation of a mutual
judiciary assistance request, usually
known as rogatory letter, whose
execution has to be authorized by the
Portuguese judiciary authorities”.
“The execution of the request has to be
integrally assured by the Portuguese
authorities, whether the judiciary or
the police, as sovereign authorities
that they are. The British authorities
cannot act, on their own, in Portugal”,
the Attorney General’s Office states.
It is added that if “their traveling to
Portugal is allowed in order to assist
the Portuguese authorities in the
execution of the aforementioned mutual
judiciary assistance request, a
participation that is carried out in the
role of an assistant”, the British
police “cannot direct any questioning or
carry out any diligence, of their own
initiative, in Portugal”.
Meanwhile, the authorities in London
have confirmed that there are Portuguese
citizens among the 38 persons of
interest that the British police wishes
to question within the investigation
that was opened in that country into the
disappearance of the little British girl
Madeleine McCann, which took place in
Praia da Luz, in Lagos, Algarve, on the
3rd of May 2007.
Several weeks ago, the British press had
already advanced the possibility that
Scotland Yard would open its own
investigation into the case, following
the review that was opened in 2011 after
the intervention of prime minister David
Cameron.
At that time, the police confirmed that
a delegation of high ranking officials
from the Crown Prosecution and British
detectives visited Portugal in mid-April
in order to discuss the next steps to
take with the Portuguese authorities.
The parents and another British citizen,
Robert Murat, were made arguidos by the
Portuguese judiciary authorities in July
2007, but on the 21st of July of 2008,
the Attorney General’s Office ordered
the suspicions to be archived, which
ended the investigation.
The Portuguese Public Ministry has
always admitted reopening the case if
new data about the child’s disappearance
appears.
in Jornal de Notícias, 05.07.2013 |
