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Three witnesses that were indicated by
the McCann couple were heard today at
the beginning of the civil process
trial, over defamation, of former
Judiciary Police inspector Gonçalo
Amaral, after a case was filed by the
parents of the English child that
disappeared in the Algarve, in 2007.
This information was given to Lusa
agency by Isabel Duarte, Madeleine
McCann's parents' lawyer, on the first
day of the trial when judge Maria Emília
Melo e Castro determined that there were
no reasons for the audience to take
place behind closed doors, as requested
by Gonçalo Amaral, who attended the
Civil Court of Lisbon as an arguido.
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.
During this first session, the judge had
to adapt the trial to the new rules of
the Civil Process Code, a legislative
reform that entered into force on the
1st of September.
The trial continues on Friday with the
questioning of five more witnesses that
were indicated by Madeleine's parents,
three of them being relatives of the
McCann couple.
In statements to Lusa, 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: Região Sul, 12.09.2013 |
