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The purpose of
this site is for information and a record of Gerry McCann's Blog
Archives. As most people will appreciate GM deleted all past blogs
from the official website. Hopefully this Archive will be helpful to
anyone who is interested in Justice for Madeleine Beth McCann. Many
Thanks, Pamalam |
Note: This site does not belong to the McCanns. It belongs to Pamalam. If
you wish to contact the McCanns directly, please use
the contact/email details
campaign@findmadeleine.com
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Book fight to continue, says lawyer |
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Isabel Duarte, the Portuguese lawyer
representing the McCann family in the case, confirmed that despite the
ruling, the book could not go back on sale until a final decision had
been made by the Portuguese
Supreme Court.
Speaking in Lisbon on Wednesday, November 10,
Gerry McCann
said that the Lisbon Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn a Lisbon
Civil Court ruling earlier this year to prohibit the publication of
ex-inspector
Goncalo Amaral’s book Maddie –
the Truth
of the Lie was “a disappointment
and a setback and one battle lost on the way”.
He told the Algarve Resident: “Our attention is
focused on searching for our daughter and we can’t lose sight of this
objective. This matter has been placed in the hands of our lawyers and
has not been definitively decided.”
Isabel Duarte said that the essential facts had “not
been called into question” and these in essence were the fact that the
book was published to make money, had inflicted pain and suffering on
her clients and had impeded the search for Madeleine through the
non-proven suggestion in the book that Madeleine had died in the
apartment
on the night of her disappearance.
The decision to overturn an earlier injunction
maintained by a Lisbon Civil Court over the publication of the book was
made in September. Lisbon’s Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the
former police chief who led the investigation into the disappearance of
Madeleine
McCann and his right to publish his thesis into what he
believed had happened to Madeleine McCann on the night of her
disappearance in 2007.
The appeal judge ruled that the “contents of the book
did not offend any of the fundamental rights” of the complainants and
“the exercise of its writing and publication is contained within the
constitutional rights assured for all by the European Convention of
Human Rights and by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic”.
In September 2009, after a temporary injunction was
successfully applied for by and granted to the McCanns against the
publication of the book and the distribution of a TVI TV documentary
programme, the Lisbon Civil Court maintained the injunction on the sale
and distribution of the book and TV recording.
But the Appeal Court judges made harsh criticisms
that the Civil Court ruling had impinged on Goncalo Amaral’s
constitutional and universal right to express his opinion, in any form
(written, interview, analysis or commentary) about what he had written
in the book” as well as “restricting his opinion and freedom of
expression”.
Isabel Duarte said that she had lodged an appeal on
November 5 against the Court of Appeal’s ruling at the Supreme Court of
Justice.
If the McCanns lost that appeal, she said, they would
take the case to the international courts. |
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HELP KEEP THIS SITE ON LINE CONSIDER |
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