Transcript
Anchor: "The court has just
decided that Goncalo Amaral's book is not going to be put on sale, thus
accepting the injunction that was requested by the McCann couple, which
suspended the book and the documentary on the same subject that was
broadcast by TVI. Last week, the former Policia Judiciaria inspector had
defended the reopening of the process into the child's disappearance,
saying that hundreds of diligences had not been carried out.
"This morning, entering the session, Goncalo Amaral showed he was
confident.
"But at this time, Sandra Felgueiras, good afternoon, and facing the
court's decision, this confidence has collapsed."
Sandra Felgueiras: "It collapses,
but Goncalo Amaral left the court building saying that he will appeal
the decision, until wherever necessary.
"But Goncalo Amaral is already here with me, and at this moment, I would
like to ask you [Goncalo Amaral] if, with your expectations collapsing,
you feel that you are a censored man in Portugal."
Goncalo Amaral: "That is a fact.
But expectations... this was one decision among the various possible
decisions. Therefore, we were always prepared for this kind of decision,
and the next step is an appeal."
SF: "What do you think happened
to the contribution that was given, in court session, by your former
colleagues from the Judiciaria, who came here to reaffirm the thesis
that you continue to be forbidden from repeating? Why wasn't it
validated by the magistrate?"
GA: "I started to perceive... I
trust justice very much, and I started to perceive that very often, what
happens during trial hearings does not reflect itself on the sentences
that are known. Therefore... this is the Portuguese justice system in
operation."
SF: "But does it discredit
Portuguese justice, at the moment? Do you believe that this decision
puts the possibility of taking forward, and of writing what one believes
is right, at stake?"
GA: "Exactly. This is a very
dangerous decision, a decision that from now on can put any other book
at stake. It puts at stake the possibility of the Portuguese people
learning about facts, of accessing certain opinions, and of the reader,
the Portuguese citizen, himself, forming his own opinion from what he
reads and from what he sees. It looks like from now on, the Portuguese
people are sheep, and the rest doesn't matter anymore. Certain formed
opinions matter, from those who sometimes make public opinion, or who
sell it on the market."
SF: "The Truth of the Lie thus
remains forbidden on the market, Goncalo Amaral remains forbidden from
repeating the thesis; you have already told me that you will appeal to
wherever necessary. Can you tell precisely for how long you are
available to continue this fight?"
GA: "Until we reach the European
Court of Human Rights. There, we have no doubts. And if that is where we
have to go, we will get there. But now we are in the appeal phase, so
I'm going to the second instance, and we shall see what the decision
is."
SF: "Nevertheless, with this
decision, don't you think that your pretension starts to lose some
credibility in the country, even more so as last week you said you
wanted to reopen the process, but at the same time the McCann couple
presented, as they said, evidence that your colleagues in Faro, or in
Portimao, to be more correct, have not been properly investigating the
search for the child."
GA: "You are asking two
completely different questions. I don't know what goes on in Portimao,
but I can tell you that the issue of the reopening of the process, that
is approached by the McCann couple, is a lie, because they did
everything to archive the process, so one doesn't understand why the
reopening of the process.
"And then that is how it is: as you know, in the archiving dispatch from
the Public Ministry, several possibilities are mentioned. In order to
reopen the process, all of those possibilities have to be investigated.
And that is certainly not what the couple wants, that all possibilities
are investigated.
"Concerning the other part, that not all leads are investigated, what
always arrived at the police, and what is most likely to be arriving at
this moment, are leads of sightings, I presume that they are of that
kind, because I heard the McCanns' lawyer mentioning fifty similar or
resembling children. I would say that there are many children like that
one in the world."
SF: "Do you really believe that
you did everything in your power to search for Madeleine McCann alive?"
GA: "I have no doubts whatsoever
about that. That work is reflected in the book, The Truth of the Lie,
and that is why the book was written, and there is no criticism
concerning the work that was done, after the book was published."
SF: "Thank you. Such is the
conviction of Goncalo Amaral, and I'm now going to risk performing a
somewhat complicated manoeuvre, even more so because there is a cable
here, Pedro. Anyway, it is also important at this point in time to hear
the opinion of the McCann couple's lawyer. The McCann couple are not in
Portugal, this time, although they attended the previous hearings, both
in December and in January. This time they chose not to come to
Portugal, to hear the final sentence. Anyway, Isabel Duarte has already
read to us the message that she received from Kate Healy, right after
communicating to her that the decision had been favourable. And that
message, Isabel Duarte, live for RTPN, I would ask you to tell us what
the reaction was, from the McCann couple, about this, let's call it
victory."
Isabel Duarte: "I sent a message
to my client, Kate - my client [Gerry] is working right now - and she
replied to me that, apart from thanking everyone that had supported her,
and asking me to do so, this decision was the reopening of conditions to
restart searching for her daughter with efficacy and success. It would
be something good for Madeleine."
SF: "During this trial, we
revived the memory of the death thesis, that you came here to silence,
with several inspectors repeating that they believe that the child is
dead. Now that you have this decision, do you think that the Portuguese
public opinion is now in a position to forget about that part of the
story, to forget that there was a period during which the Policia
Judici?ia actually believed that the child is dead?"
ID: "What happened during this
trial was that the only people who defended that thesis in reports in
the process that is archived in Portimao, were brought here. No people
who did not defend that thesis, namely the inspectors that undersigned
the last report, which prompted the archiving of the process, were
brought to this trial. As a matter of fact, the judge mentions exactly
that, and clarified that she read the full Portimao inquiry before
uttering this decision."
SF: "And what was the conclusion,
what was the argument that the magistrate offered to justify maintaining
this injunction?"
ID: "It's the same arguments, in
more depth, of the first injunction, that is to say, that this book...
She weighed the rights that are in confrontation here, that is to say,
the right to freedom of expression, and the right of people to be
treated with dignity and to be respected, and from that weight, from
that evaluation, the judge understood that this book could not remain on
the market because it violated rights that are more important than that
of freedom of expression."
SF: "Concerning the main process,
and your will, and the McCann couple's will to reopen that process, what
phase is it in, at the moment?"
ID: "In our office, we are
analysing all of the documents that came from the Algarve, selecting
those that seem to be important to us and that which is secondary, or
absolutely necessary, so I can meet with my colleagues and with my
clients, and all of us make a decision concerning the reopening of the
process, which they have manifested, over the last few days, that they
want to do, after finding out that there are several elements in the
Portimao process that they did not know about."
SF: "Thank you. Thus ends this
trial, this saga, another saga in the Madeleine McCann process. Goncalo
Amaral's book, The Truth of the Lie, is definitely, or at least, at this
moment, forbidden, it remains forbidden. Goncalo Amaral is prevented
from repeating the thesis that he defended and sustained in the book,
which is to say, the thesis that he fed during the period that he
coordinated the investigation, that is to say, believing that the child
is dead and that the couple is behind the concealment of the cadaver.
"The magistrate, Maria Gabriela Cunha Rodrigues, agreed with the
couple's pretension and sustained, in today's decision, that the right
to a good name prevails and that therefore this book cannot remain on
the market. It hasn't been on the market since September, now we know
that it will remain like that.
"Nonetheless, Goncalo Amaral continues saying that he will appeal until
wherever necessary, even up to the European Court of Human Rights." |
