Hope for Gerry and Kate McCann as Portugese police are confident they will find Madeleine
PORTUGUESE police are confident they will find Madeleine McCann alive, her parents’ lawyer revealed yesterday.
By Jerry Lawton/Published 26th October 2013
HOPE: Police in Portugal have reopened the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance [PA]
Rogerio Alves, the Portuguese attorney representing Kate and Gerry McCann, said that was the “sole aim” of the officers after reopening the investigation.
He said the detectives have finally admitted to the McCanns, both 45, that they no longer regard them as suspects.
The original investigation, which pointed the finger at the couple, both doctors, was shelved five years ago.
At a meeting with the McCanns in Portugal’s capital Lisbon, police chiefs told them they were confident the “truth will be discovered’ about their daughter’s fate”.
Details of the new line of inquiry were being kept secret by the police because the probe is at such a critical stage any leak could hamper it.
“This new line of inquiry excludes any responsibility of the parents”
Rogerio Alves, Kate and Gerry McCann's Portugese attorney
The reopening of the investigation, which was announced by Portugal’s Attorney General on Thursday, follows a two-and-a-half-year internal review of the evidence. The probe will run parallel to the ongoing Met Police inquiry.
Mr Alves said Kate and Gerry were told the “reasons why it was being reopened” at the meeting with Portuguese and British police last week.
He said: “They also know that this new line of inquiry excludes any responsibility of the parents.
“What it means is that the police understand there are new avenues that should be explored.
“This brings Madeleine’s parents a legitimate expectation, not only that the truth will be discovered, but also that it will be possible to find Madeleine alive – which is the sole aim of all the efforts they’ve been making.”
British police also believe the youngster, who disappeared from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007, could still be alive. They have spent two years reviewing the original case files and documents from eight teams of private detectives hired by the McCanns and said they have found no evidence she is dead.
Mr Alves, who was hired by the McCanns after they were declared suspects by the original police team, now wants them made “assistentes”, private prosecutors, in the case.
It will mean their lawyers can work with state prosecutors, and even press their own charges against suspects.Mr Alves added the secrecy order prevented him revealing the new line of inquiry.
He said: “The police asked us specifically not to compromise the investigation and we are all obliged to respect the secrecy order.”
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