photo caption: Scotland Yard inspectors are returning to Faro

Scotland Yard will return to Portugal to hear eleven persons in the Maddie case. The start is scheduled for the 9th, at the PJ in Faro.

The 11 men and women will be summoned to give statements as witnesses, but given the contents of some of the questions they will be asked, the possibility that they will be made arguidos is not excluded.

The diligences, which are foreseen to last for three days, will be performed within the scope of the fifth letter rogatory. In the document, British police revealed that out of the eleven, seven people were of "high interest" to the investigation and the other four were less relevant. Given that interest and taking into account the incriminating contents of some of the questions, Portimao's prosecutor, Ines Sequeira, decided that those seven should be made arguidos and questioned as suspects.

The letter was then sent by the Public Ministry to the PJ for execution. But after JN reported these new facts in first hand, and at a time when the PJ was preparing to notify the persons, the British authorities stepped back. They sent the Public Ministry clarification, saying they didn't want all of the seven persons to be made arguidos, which led to change in these people's status within the process. Scotland Yard has targeted Robert Murat (the British investigation's first arguido), his wife Michaela Walczuch, and her former husband, Luis Antonio. The list also includes Silvia Batista, head of the Ocean Club's workers, the resort's manager John Hill and his wife, and a Portuguese man that resembles one of the various portraits of possible suspects.