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The Lisbon Court of Appeals overturned
the decision that had been taken a year
ago by a judge of the Civil Court of
Lisbon, which condemned the former
Inspector of the Judiciary Police,
Gonçalo Amaral, to pay half a million
euro to the parents of Madeleine McCann
for the book that he wrote about the
case.
In 'Maddie, The Truth of the Lie',
published in July 2008, Amaral argues
that the child died accidentally in the
apartment at the Ocean Club resort, in
Praia da Luz (Lagos) on the night she
disappeared on May 3, 2007 and that her
parents concealed the body and
disseminated, in order to cloud the
facts, the abduction thesis. The Civil
Court had ruled that the book caused
severe damage to the good name and
reputation of Kate and Gerry McCann, who
despite being constituted as arguidos in
the investigation, saw the suspicions
over them being archived.
In the ruling of the 14th, the Lisbon
Court of Appeals judges Ferreira de
Almeida, Catarina Manso and Alexandrina
Branquinho decided to absolve Gonçalo
Amaral and revoked the decision of the
first instance court.
'Legitimate exercise of the right of
opinion'
In the decision, the judges begin by
considering that the book is nothing
more than a "legitimate exercise of the
right of opinion", being its content
very clear: "The thesis that the minor
died accidentally and that fact was
concealed by the parents", which appears
in the PJ final report and determined
their constitution as arguidos. And they
add, that it was the parents themselves,
by the interviews given at the time,
"who voluntarily limited their rights to
privacy and to the protection of the
intimacy of family life."
Furthermore, the Appeals Court destroys
the thesis of the Civil Court that
invoked as a reason to condemn Gonçalo
Amaral the infringement of the secrecy
of duty to which he was bound as a
criminal investigation officer. “It
would indeed be hard to understand if an
officer, what is more a retired one,
kept the alluded duties of
confidentiality and secrecy of duty,
thus becoming restricted in the exercise
of his right of opinion as to the
interpretation of facts already made
public by the judicial authority and
widely discussed (by the way, in large
measure, by the initiative of the
intervenients themselves) on national
and international media”, stated the
Appellate judges.
The former PJ inspector, who had been
ordered to pay 500,000 euro to the
McCanns, which in turn, led to the
arrest of part of his salary, can now
claim the end of the seizure and request
for compensation to the couple.
Contacted by SOL, Gonçalo Amaral
declined to make a comment.
The Appeals Court decision equally
overturns the sentences of the other
defendants in the case: Guerra e Paz,
the book publisher, Valentim de Carvalho
and TVI, who produced a documentary and
then a DVD based on 'Maddie, The Truth
of the Lie'. The Civil Court decision
had prohibited the book and the DVD to
be sold or republished, in addition the
defendants also had to deliver the
copies that could still exist in depots
or warehouses. Of the 180,000 copies,
170,000 were sold and seven thousand
were seized by the McCann.
in SOL newspaper, April 19, 2016
Note* Red book banner reads "There is no
axe that can cut the root of Freedom" in
a reference to intervention musician
Manuel Freire's “Livre” – “Não há
machado que corte, a raiz ao pensamento”.
See as well Portugal: the Carnation
Revolution of 1974. |
