|
Appeal
court lifts block on sales of book by former detective
alleging Madeleine is dead and abduction story was
fabricated
 |
|
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da
Luz in 2007. Photograph: PA |
Kate
and Gerry McCann,
the parents of missing
Madeleine,
suffered a setback today in their legal
battle with a Portuguese police officer when a Lisbon
appeal court overturned a ban on his book about the
case.
The book by former police detective
Goncalo Amaral,
who led the Madeleine investigation in the first five
months after the three-year-old's disappearance, can now
go back on sale.
In September last year the McCanns obtained the ban
on Amaral's book Maddie –
The Truth about the Lie, in
which he claims they were involved in the toddler's
disappearance.
Amaral claims Madeleine died accidentally in the
Algarve holiday
apartment
at
Praia da Luz, where she was
first reported missing in October 2007, and that her
parents fabricated the abduction story. The McCanns, who
have never ceased in their search for the missing girl,
are suing him for
defamation.
Portugal's attorney general, having reviewed the
investigation, has ruled there is no evidence to suggest
that the McCanns are anything other than entirely
innocent.
The court said the decision to block sales of the
book had broken "a constitutional and universal right:
that of opinion and freedom of expression."
"The contents of the book do not breach the basic
rights of the plaintiffs," the court said, according to
the Jornal de Noticías newspaper's website.
"The book is an exercise in freedom of speech,"
Amaral told Portugal's Lusa news agency. "Portuguese
democracy has won, as banning the book was
unconstitutional."
A spokesman for the McCann family said the decision
did not stop the defamation case. "The defamation action
against Mr Amaral is very much continuing," he said.
"Kate and Gerry's
lawyers
are now examining the detail
of this latest ruling and are considering an appeal."
After Amaral lost an earlier appeal, the McCanns
claimed his book had caused "significant, ongoing damage
to the search for our beloved daughter Madeleine and to
the rights of our family ... there is no evidence that
Madeleine has come to any harm."
They added: "As painful and personally damaging as
the slanderous claims of Mr Amaral and his supporters
have been to us and our family, our primary focus has
always been, and always will be, to find Madeleine
through our own best investigative efforts." |
