Gerry and
Kate McCann are to be cleared over their daughter
Madeleine's disappearance as the Portuguese police announced
they are to close their investigation.
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The McCanns, along with fellow suspect Robert
Murat, are expected to have their arguido status
lifted in the coming weeks Photo: GEOFF PUGH |
One year
and two months since the four-year-old went missing, the
final police report into her disappearance offered no
insight or conclusion as to what happened to her,
heightening concerns that the police operation was in
disarray.
Reports
from Portugal said that the Policia Judiciaria probe into
Madeleine's fate has been shelved and will be archived.
The
McCanns, along with fellow suspect Robert Murat, are
expected to have their arguido status lifted in the coming
weeks.
Mr
McCann, 39, and his 40-year-old wife have been told they
will know their fate by the middle of August.
Yesterday
their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said while they were
waiting for official confirmation, they had "no reason" not
to believe that the McCanns were about to be released from
the investigation.
He added
that despite the authorities shelving their inquiry, they
would never give up searching for Madeleine and demanded
that the police papers into the case be released.
He said:
"On the one hand that will be welcome because the wider
world will see Kate and Gerry to be the innocent and wronged
couple that they are and all the pain and unnecessary
suffering they have gone through on top of losing Madeleine.
"They are
innocent of any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and
have been since day one, and this wrongly-imposed arguido
status must be lifted as a priority and our lawyers will be
pressing for that.
"On the
other hand, if the police are to shelve it, who's going to
be looking for Madeleine in Portugal? Does that mean they've
just given up the search? She's still out there."
Mr
Mitchell said that leaks to the Portuguese police probably
reflected the police recommendation to the public
prosecutor.
The
couple's lawyers have lodged a claim at the High Court to be
given access to documents relating to the case, which they
could then use for the private investigation they are
running through the Portuguese detective agency Metodo 3.
Once
their arguido status was lifted, they will be able to talk
publicly about the investigation since it was imposed last
September. It should also mean they could see the police
papers, although the authorities may still block them.
Mr
Mitchell said: "If the case is closed completely, but the
files remain closed to anybody's observation, then that is
wrong.
"Surely
it's only humane and decent that information that could help
find Madeleine comes to the investigators who will keep
looking for her even if the Portuguese investigators feel
they can't.
"We have
a very sophisticated intelligence gathering operation under
way now - it's happening on several fronts in several
countries. We would urge anybody out there who may have
anything, no matter how minor it is, that may be relevant to
finding Madeleine, to let us know."
He said
they were following up "new and good" information since the
round of media interviews the couple did for the first
anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance on May 3 2007 from
their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
While the
police investigation is being closed, it can be re-opened in
the light of any new evidence.
According
to a source in the Policia Judiciaria, the final report on
the investigation is only descriptive of the facts which
have been verified and those that have not been ascertained
in the case. It means it has not reached any conclusions
over whether Madeleine's disappearance involved abduction,
homicide, or concealing of a body.
Technically the public prosecutor could still press ahead
with a prosecution but in the light of such lack of evidence
and the police shelving their investigation it is virtually
inconceivable |