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Original Source: Diário de
Notícias, 09.10.2013 |
| In: Diário
de Notícias, 09.10.2013, paper edition |
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Translated by Astro |
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Trial.
PJ director admitted that initial thesis
of Maddie's abduction may have been
rushed
by Valentina Marcelino
The judge at the Civil Court of Lisbon
who is trying the McCann couple's
lawsuit against the former PJ inspector
- who defends the thesis of the parents'
responsibility in their daughter
Madeleine's death - suggested that
Gonçalo Amaral's book may be "misleading
publicity", because contrary to what is
announced on its back cover it does not
contain "unique revelations" about the
case of the disappearance of the little
girl in 2007, in Praia da Luz.
The magistrate's conclusion followed the
statements of one of Amaral's defense
witnesses that was heard in court
yesterday, the PJ inspector Ricardo
Paiva, who took part in the
investigative team. He stated that The
Truth of the Lie did not contain any
more information than what was in the
files of the process that has been
shelved in the mean time, and made
public. Thus Gonçalo Amaral's defense
seeks to devalue the impact of the
accusations that are contained in the
book on the McCann family and to empty
the arguments that sustain Gerry and
Kate McCann's request for 1.5 million as
compensation over moral damages.
"What are the 'revelations' in the
book?" the judge asked Ricardo Paiva.
"There is nothing new compared with the
inquiry", the inspector replied. "But it
says the contrary on the back cover, it
says that there are 'unique
revelations'. What are those?", the
magistrate insisted. "They may be unique
to those who bought the book and didn't
read the inquiry", Ricardo Paiva
suggested. Ironically, the judge
concluded "Then it's misleading
publicity!".
The McCann couple's lawyers, on the
other hand, have been trying to
demonstrate that the book contains a lot
more information than the criminal
process, namely the author's final
conclusion that the little girl died in
the apartment, which is the motive of
the moral damage that was caused to the
family.
During yesterday's session, the director
of the National Counter-Terrorism Unit (UNCT)
testified for Gonçalo Amaral's defense
and implied that the abduction theory,
with which the investigation started
right after the little girl's
disappearance, may have been rushed.
"When Dr Guilhermino Encarnação [former
PJ director] held the first press
conference and spoke about an abduction,
we still didn't know whether it was one
thing or another", he said. According to
Luís Neves, an abduction specialist, at
the time the signs that are normally the
basis for this type of crime, like "a
ransom demand", were missing. The
director of UNCT also recalled that it
was Maddie's parents who, being first to
admit that their daughter might be dead,
ended up indirectly triggering the
arrival in Portugal of the English dogs
that detected cadaver odour in the
apartment where Maddie disappeared from.
And that was when Amaral's thesis
started to gain strength.
BBC Programme
SIC asserts it was not contacted
"SIC was not contacted to broadcast the
documentary that the BBC has made about
the "Maddie case", contrary to what the
English press has published. Next Monday
(14), the British station broadcasts on
its show Crimewatch what is promised to
be a reconstruction of Madeleine
McCann's disappearance. The script
results from the Scotland Yard's
investigation. The British press asserts
that the Portuguese televisions refused
to broadcast the documentary.
Nonetheless, questioned by DN, an
official source at SIC asserts that the
channel was never contacted. RTP and TVI
have not replied until this edition's
closing time.
in: Diário de Notícias, 09.10.2013,
paper edition
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