 |
Original Source:
MAIL: 06 NOVEMBER 2007 |
|
Last
updated at 00:23am on 6th November 2007 |
|
|
|
A woman who claims to have seen Madeleine McCann being bundled into a taxi in
Morocco, says she has received anonymous Mafia death threats.
Naoual Malhi, 24, says men
claiming to work for the country's crime barons have warned her to keep her
mouth shut about what she saw - and ditch plans to probe the sighting herself.
The mum-of-one, whose daughter Ines is Madeleine's age, has told how one
growled: "Let this lie if you know what's good for you, your daughter and
the rest of your family, otherwise you're a dead woman next time you're in Morocco."
But brave Naoual is pressing ahead with plans to defy
the threats and return to her homeland to look for the girl she saw.
She is also getting the calls - which come from withheld numbers - taped so she
can hand them over to police helping in the hunt for the missing four-year-old.
Naoual, who lives near Marbella, Spain,
said: "I'm not frightened by the mafia.
"It's obvious I'm on to something otherwise they wouldn't be calling.
"They've warned me I'm going to be killed next time I step on Moroccan
soil unless I shut my mouth about Madeleine.
"But I know the girl I saw getting into that taxi was her and I'm not
going to stop until I find her.
"We're taping all the phone calls and I'm going to give them to police to
investigate.
"It could provide them with another good clue to her whereabouts."
Naoual claims to have seen a blonde girl with
Madeleine's distinctive right iris in the arms of a middle-aged woman in Fnideq, northern Morocco, at the end of September.
She lost them after they headed to the former Spanish garrison town of Al Hoceima,
further east along the Mediterranean coast.
Last month she travelled to north Africa with private investigators working for
the McCanns - and says she received hundreds of phone calls from people who had
seen the pair in various locations in Morocco's Rif Mountains.
They were last spotted in the remote town of Karia Ba Mohamed near
Fez - but the
trail is now thought to have gone cold.
Naoual says she and her family have been receiving
death threats on a Moroccan mobile she put on a picture poster of Madeleine
distributed throughout the area.
Her Fez-based family have been answering the phone and taking information down
from callers since she returned to Spain on October 16.
Kate and Gerry McCann believe Morocco
is the place their daughter is most likely to be - and consider Naoual's information to be "highly credible".
They insist Portuguese police are wrong in believing Madeleine died by accident
in their apartment on May 3 when she was last seen - and they disposed of her
body.
Naoual, who describes herself as a qualified doctor,
said: "All I want to do is reunite the McCanns with their daughter.
"I have a young girl the same age so I know how they must feel.
"There is no doubt in my mind Madeleine is in Morocco. Blonde girls are highly
sought after there. I suspect the woman she is with is looking after for
someone until she is old enough to be forced into child prostitution.
"After the death threats I've received, I'm more certain than ever that
that someone is the Moroccan mafia.
"It's not nice to get these calls. But they just make me more determined
to get to the bottom of this. I'm preparing to return to Morocco as soon
as I can."
Metodo 3, the private investigators working for the
McCanns, has said it also believes Madeleine is alive and being held against
her will in Morocco.
They are currently trawling lists of Portuguese paedophiles in the belief a
local man stole her to order from her Algarve
apartment and took her to Morocco
after crossing the border with Spain
hours after the snatch.
A Norwegian tourist and two Spanish tourists have also reported sightings in
the north African country.
A newspaper reported at the weekend that criminal Godfathers in Morocco have
been told police will scale back drug busts against them if they agree to help
the Madeleine probe.
Police chiefs in Morocco
have angrily denied their country is a child sex haven and say their searches
for Madeleine have produced no evidence she is there. |
|
|
|
LEVESON INQUIRY:
This is the exhibit marked "NP6"
referred to in the Witness Statement of
Nicole Patterson dated this 16th day of
September 2011. PDF |
|
|
02 Nov 2007, On page 2, is a
claim for expenses from Padraic
Flanagan, Employee No 510424, for €500,
Cash paid to Naoual Malhi, Urbanacion
Calahonda Royale, Mijas Costa, for
exclusive buyup on Madeleine eyewitness.
click here for screenshot of above text |
| |
|
 |
|
