PORTUGUESE
police have denied that they are closing the investigation
into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance for lack of evidence.
It was claimed
earlier that cops were preparing to 'shelve’ the case ending
the search for the five-year-old and possibly
leaving her
parents Kate and Gerry living under a cloud of suspicion
forever.
But Portugal’s
attorney-general said officials have not yet decided if
their investigation is over.
Fernando Pinto
Monteiro said police have handed over their final report
into Maddie's disappearance.
However,
Monteiro added in a statement that prosecutors will examine
the police report before deciding whether to end the
investigation or undertake further inquiries.
A friend of
Kate and Gerry, who are arguidos - official suspects - in
their daughter’s disappearance, earlier described the claims
of shelving the case as 'probably the worst case scenario’
adding: “It is what Kate and Gerry have always feared. That
police would simply wrap the case up saying they couldn’t do
anymore without clearing Madeleine’s parents of any
involvement.
“It means
nothing further will be done to find Madeleine, or the
person who took her, and Kate and Gerry will forever have to
live with fingers being pointed at them.”
Official
suspect Robert Murat also today said he did not want the
investigation to end, adding: "I want Madeleine McCann found
as much as anyone else."
Ex-pat Brit
Murat lives near the apartment from where Maddie went
missing.
His lawyer
Francisco Pagarete said yesterday he knew nothing of the
latest developments in the Madeleine McCann case.
He said: “We
haven’t been contacted by anyone in the police for more than
three months. Robert is calm."
According to
reports in Portugal cops have not been able to find any
substantial evidence which shows conclusively what happened
to Madeleine on the night she disappeared from a holiday
complex in Praia da Luz on May 3rd last year.
Portuguese
newspaper Expresso claimed police chief Paulo Rebelo who is
heading the investigation has already closed the case.
Yesterday, the
McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said if that was true
then the couple should now be cleared of being official
suspects.
He said: “If
this report is true it is not before time. Kate and Gerry
have suffered long enough in this process.
“It is now
only right for the Portuguese police to recognise that they
are not involved in their daughter’s disappearance.
“Police should
lift their arguido status and should pass their information
over to our investigators who continue to work on the case.
“We still need
to find Madeleine"
He added:
“They are entirely innocent of any involvement in the
disappearance of Madeleine."
Mr Mitchell
said that Kate and Gerry’s greatest fear was that the search
for Madeleine, who they firmly believe is still alive, will
now stop, if it hasn’t already.
Speaking about
the Portuguese police Mr Mitchell said: “We would hope they
continue to search for Madeleine. If they are to shelve the
case they should make available any information they have in
their files to our investigators so that they can continue
the search.
“We haven’t
got Madeleine back yet. We don’t want all that information
sitting on a shelf gathering dust.
"If they are
to clear Gerry and Kate of any involvement in Madeleine’s
disappearance, which is right because they are completely
innocent, then we would hope that they continue to keep
looking for a girl who went missing in their country."
Gerry and Kate
announced recently they would ask a High Court judge to
order the release of police files on her disappearance.
Police in
their home county of Leicestershire, who lead the British
arm of the official investigation, have so far stuck to an
agreement with their Portuguese counterparts not to disclose
information on the inquiry.
The McCanns
plan to make their application to Mrs Justice Hogg in the
Family Division of the High Court on July 7.
Spanish-based
private investigation firm, Metodo 3, are being paid £50,000
a month to search for Maddie.
She went
missing while her parents were dining at a Tapas bar in the
holiday complex just a few hundred yards away from their
apartment. Maddie had been left alone in the flat with her
then two-year-old twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie.
Her parents
believe Maddie was abducted by a man who was seen hurrying
away from the apartment with a child in his arms.
But within
days of her going missing Portuguese police’s suspicions
fell on her parents who they claimed had accidentally killed
her and hid her body.
Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leics, were made official
suspects last September. Cops claimed Madeleine’s DNA had
been found in a hire car they believed her parents had used
to transport her body.
They also
claimed her blood had been found in the holiday apartment.
But forensic investigation of the blood and DNA evidence by
British experts is believed to have proved inconclusive.
In April,
Portuguese cops, headed by Rebelo, flew to Britain to quiz
the Tapas Seven - the friends the McCanns were dining with
on the night Maddie disappeared.
Yesterday
Portuguese channel 4 news, TVI, claimed a police source had
told them that cops had been unable to ascertain whether
Madeleine was the victim of an abduction or manslaughter.
The police
final report is due handed to Portimao’s prosecutor in
charge of the case in the next few days and he is expected
to give his ruling.
If the
prosecutor rules the case closed, it can be reopened at any
time if new evidence comes to light. Until then it will be
’archived’ - effectively shelved.
Portuguese
newspaper Journal da Noticias reported a police source as
saying: “Police will continue to be attentive to any new
information that arises once the case has been archived as
happens with other missing children.
“But the
Madeleine McCann case can only be reopened if an important
piece of evidence comes to light.”
The prosecutor
has the power to lift Kate and Gerry’s ’arguido’ status but
if he doesn’t they can apply to a court to have it removed
themselves.
The McCanns’
Portuguese lawyer Carlos Pinto de Abreu said he will
continue to demand the police case files are handed over to
them saying: “I want to be in a position to do what the
McCanns always wanted, which is to assure themselves the
investigation was properly conducted and continue to look
for their daughter.”
The McCanns
are expected to learn their fate officially after the
judicial secrecy surrounding the Madeleine McCann case is
lifted on September 15.
