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Afternoon session was cancelled
Only two witnesses, a psycholigist and a
criminal lawyer, were heard today on the
second day of the trial of the civil
lawsuit that was filed by the McCann
couple against former PJ inspector
Gonçalo Amaral, as the afternoon session
was canceled.
According to Isabel Duarte, the McCanns'
lawyer, the cancellation of the audience
that had been scheduled for the
afternoon was due to a "personal
problem" of judge Maria Emília Melo e
Castro. Nevertheless, the impediment is
of temporary character and does not
compromise the course of the trail.
Isabel Duarte, the McCann couple's
lawyer in the civil suit, over
defamation, against the former PJ
inspector who investigated the
disappearance of the English child in
the Algarve (2007), told Lusa agency
that due to this unforeseen problem with
the judge, the court was not able to
hear the other three witnesses, all of
them relatives of the British couple.
With Kate McCann and the grandmother of
the missing little girl seated in the
area that is destined for the public,
the morning session was used to hear an
English psychologist who accompanied
Madeleine McCann's twin siblings after
the tragic disappearance of the child
from a hotel apartment in Lagos, in the
Algarve.
The other witness that was heard was a
criminal lawyer who helped the McCann
couple in an attempt to decipher the
mystery that surrounds the disappearance
of Madeleine McCann, who spoke about the
media impact that the public statements
of Gonçalo Amaral, involving the child's
parents in the disappearance, had in
England.
Isabel Duarte mentioned that the
following sessions are scheduled for
September 19, 20 and 27, then continuing
on October 2 and 8, and concluding on
the 5th of November.
According to the lawyer, Kate McCann
will not testify during the trial,
despite the fact that the new Civil
Process Code already foresees that
possibility, given that the process was
worked upon and elaborated under another
presupposition.
The same happens with Gonçalo Amaral,
who will not make a statement during the
trial.
Earlier, the parties failed to reach an
extrajudicial agreement within the civil
case, in which Madeleine McCann's
parents requested compensation in the
amount of 1.2 million euro over the
alleged defamation by the former PJ
inspector (who investigated the child's
disappearance). The trial started with
the questioning of three witnesses - a
Canadian and two Englishmen - who are
"friends" of the McCann couple.
In statements to Lusa on Thursday,
Isabel Duarte said that since the
beginning, the McCann couple was open to
reach an extrajudicial agreement with
Gonçalo Amaral, but it was not possible
to reach an agreement with the arguido.
Nonetheless, she stressed that the
McCann couple's main goal was that the
investigation into the child's
disappearance was restarted, which,
according to her, has already happened,
without adding any further details or
leads.
In a related process, the Civil Court of
Lisbon decided, in January of 2010, to
keep the prohibition of the sale of the
book "Maddie: The Truth of the Lie",
authored by Gonçalo Amaral, and of the
video with the same title, based on a
documentary that was broadcast by TVI.
The ban of the book and the video, which
presents Gonçalo Amaral's thesis on the
involvement of Kate and Gerry McCann in
the disappearance of their daughter by
concealing the cadaver, had been
provisionally ordered on the 9th of
September of 2009.
On the 19th of October of 2010, the
Appellate Court of Lisbon annulled the
decision of the Civil Court, after which
the McCann couple appealed to the
Supreme Court of Justice. In a ruling
dated March 18, 2011, the Supreme Court
confirmed the Appellate Court's
decision.
Madeleine McCann disappeared on the 3rd
of May of 2007, in an apartment in a
holiday resort in Praia da Luz, in the
Algarve, where she was spending a
vacation with her parents and her twin
siblings.
At that time, Gonçalo Amaral was the
coordinator of the Criminal
Investigation Department of the
Judiciary Police in Portimão.
Kate and Gerry McCann, who have always
stated that the child was abducted, were
made arguidos in September, 2007.
The investigation was archived due to a
lack of evidence in July of 2008,
although the Public Ministry admits
reopening it if new data concerning the
child's disappearance surfaces.
in: TVI24, 13.09.2013 |
