Latest news on the search for Madeleine McCann

[Cariad]

The police have a suspect alive in England:   {... name removed .....} friend of the McCanns' holiday

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cmjornal.xl.pt%2Fdetalhe%2Fnoticias%2Fexclusivo-cm%2Fja-ouviram-o-payne&sandbox=1

Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just copy/pasting it!

Goodness knows whether it's the Portuguese version of the star style 'aliens abducted my goldfish' type article.

[Mr Gray]

The police have a suspect alive in England: {... name removed ...} friend of the McCanns' holiday

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cmjornal.xl.pt%2Fdetalhe%2Fnoticias%2Fexclusivo-cm%2Fja-ouviram-o-payne&sandbox=1

Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just copy/pasting it!

Goodness knows whether it's the Portuguese version of the star style 'aliens abducted my goldfish' type article.

Do you have a link to the original article in portuguese

[Carana]

Interesting... he was one of Amaral's witnesses.

(08.10.2013, 2:25pm) Manuel Catarino is Editor in Chief of the Portuguese daily, the Morning Mail (Correio da Manhã) and a journalist familiar with criminal processes. He authored "A culpa dos McCann” ("The guilt of the McCanns") with a preface by Francisco Moita Flores, that contains an interview by the criminologist José Manuel Anes, who reviewed the PJ investigation.
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2601.0

[Mr Gray]

it doesn't seem to be on the front page ...has a question mark...how accurate is the google translation..looks like rubbish..but wait and see

[Carana]

it doesn't seem to be on the front page ...has a question mark...how accurate is the google translation..looks like rubbish..but wait and see

Ao Fim e ao Cabo
Já ouviram o Payne?

A polícia tem um suspeito vivo em Inglaterra: {... name removed ...} amigo de férias dos McCann.

    Hoje, 00h35
    Nº de votos (0)
    Comentários (0)

Por: Manuel Catarino, redator principal

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/detalhe/noticias/exclusivo-cm/ja-ouviram-o-payne

Google translate version in English

[jassi]

It will be interesting to see if any UK paper picks this up - some of them seem to like this sort of sensational headline.

I wonder if a certain spokesperson will have anything to say?

[Cariad]

Do you have a link to the original article in portuguese

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/search.aspx?q=maddie

I'm making no claims to the quality of the translation or the original info. It could well be a load of rubbish.

[VIXTE]

IMO this is just adding to my 'nice citizen in PT being accused by SY' theory.. now PT paper is fighting back with 'nice citizen in the UK being accused'

Just my opinion 

Plus wasn't DP who actually did not leave the table that night?

[Carana]

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/search.aspx?q=maddie

I'm making no claims to the quality of the translation or the original info. It could well be a load of rubbish.

I know you're not. The original seems to say the same thing.

He's the editor-in-chief of CdaM, an Amaral witness and the author of "The Guilt of the McCanns". It'll be wrapped as an "opinion" piece I expect. He does know that { ...name removed...}  had already been interviewed as part of the rogatory process, doesn't he?

[Cariad]

I know you're not. The original seems to say the same thing.

He's the editor-in-chief of CdaM, an Amaral witness and the author of "The Guilt of the McCanns". It'll be wrapped as an "opinion" piece I expect. He does know that Payne had already been interviewed as part of the rogatory process, doesn't he?

As in 'why are SY over here when they could be questioning someone on their own soil' kind of thing?

I guess it could read like that....

[Carana]

IMO this is just adding to my 'nice citizen in PT being accused by SY' theory.. now PT paper is fighting back with 'nice citizen in the UK being accused'

Just my opinion 

Plus wasn't DP who actually did not leave the table that night?

No one has been accused (in a legal sense), but, yes, it does come across that way.

The Payne family had a super-duper baby monitor and didn't leave the table.

[Carana]

As in 'why are SY over here when they could be questioning someone on their own soil' kind of thing?

I guess it could read like that....

Quite possibly, but SY wouldn't need to go to Portugal to (re)interview someone on their own soil.

[Carana]

ITV

No imminent plans to make any arrests in Madeleine McCann case

Emma Murphy: Europe Correspondent
last updated Wed 29 Jan 2014

As much as people may wish it to lead somewhere, the meeting between British and Portuguese detectives is a routine part of the investigation to establish what happened to Madeleine McCann.

In recent months, with both countries working on their own inquiries they have started to liaise much more over the detail of their work.

This is partly because new teams - without any of the historic antagonism - are now in place, but also due to Portuguese law.

The British can't just get on a flight and start interviewing or arresting suspects. Any police work has to be done by the Portuguese and for that to happen an International Letter of Request must be sent from the UK.

Many such letters have been sent and will be sent as part of Operation Grange, the Metropolitan Police's investigation.The last arrived a few days ago.

This meeting is a chance for officers from both countries to go through the detail.

Speaking to sources in Portugal and also the UK, it seems clear there is no plan to start making arrests imminently, if at all. This will be a long and slow process.

After so many years no one in the McCann family is getting overly optimistic. There have been too many moments which apparently offered far more than this routine meeting.

[VIXTE]

I don't understand this bit in bold: Does this mean if they were questioned by PJ back in 2007 then  they cannot be questioned again???

British police want to question three suspects in the Algarve - translated by JM

Four investigators were gathered with senior Polícia Judiciária (PJ) officers in the Algarve to work on the details of the investigation. British newspapers believe in arrests.

by Valentina Marcelino and Paula Carmo
29 January 2014

Four Scotland Yard investigators were gathered yesterday with senior Polícia Judiciária (PJ) officers in the Algarve to work on the details of a further step of the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance. The visit of the English police officers to Portugal comes following a request for judicial assistance from the British authorities to question three suspects, who at the time of the disappearance of the girl, in 2007, were referenced in burglaries in the Praia da Luz area.

A source from the PJ's Directorate confirmed to the DN [Diário de Notícias acronym] the presence of elements from the Metropolitan Police at the Judiciary Police headquarters of Faro, but did not disclose further details. At the meeting was also present Luís Mota Carmo, the head of the PJ directorate of Faro, who listened to the justifications of the English that lead to the suspicions about those three individuals. Until the closing of this edition no conclusions were yet known, namely of when and where will the suspects be heard.

In accordance to the rules of judicial cooperation agreements, a foreign police cannot investigate in the national territory. For example, in case the questioning is performed, it will always be the PJ inspectors leading it, albeit with the British watching. The questions were already sent in detail in the letter rogatory and intend to learn from the suspects the reasons of them being in that area, at that time and that day. This new investigative line, that is being attempted by the British authorities, emerged after they cross-referenced phone records made at the time of the disappearance of the child, in that area, which led to new suspects.

According to what was reported in recent days by the English newspapers, the visit of the British investigators has as goal “to make the first arrests” since Scotland Yard decided to re-analyse the case in 2011, referred to as Operation Grange. The push for this decision has been assumed by the team leader, DCI Andy Redwood, who has already expressed his belief that “Maddie” could be alive.

This time the targets are, and still according to the British press, three men, authors of several burglaries in the area of Praia da Luz. The phone traffic data shows that these suspects did “numerous phone calls to each other” in the time period in which Madeleine was reported as missing from the apartment where she was holidaying with her parents and siblings. The Metropolitan Police was “eager” to question these burglars and went to Portugal with the goal of making the first arrests, reported the Daily Mirror last Friday.

All the traffic data that was analysed thoroughly by the British police had also been scrutinized by the PJ during the investigation that was later archived in 2008. Although it was not possible to obtain, up to now, information from the PJ about whether the three suspects had already been heard in that initial investigation, as a rule of thumb, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) only gives positive response to letters rogatory when the steps requested by foreign authorities were not carried out during another investigation. In other words, the acceptance of the English request could mean that these three suspected robbers who were referenced as being close to the crime scene were never heard by the Judiciary Police.

Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman of the couple Kate and Gerry McCann told the Daily Mirror yesterday that the acceptance of the letter rogatory by the PGR represents a significant development and that “It is necessary for British police to request the Portuguese authorities allow them to operate on their turf. It means they have the intention of arresting and interviewing X, Y or Z”. The spokesman of Madeleine's parents added “Whether the Portuguese will co-operate remains to be seen. It is a very sensitive issue with differences they have had.”.

In August last year, the PJ was also mandated by the Public Ministry, to comply with another letter rogatory, with a wide set of steps that resulted from Operation Granger. At the time, the British police had announced the identification of 41 suspects, 12 of them British nationals. These were also referenced through the analysis of traffic data. Apart from Portugal, Scotland Yard submitted letters rogatory to thirty other countries, most of them European countries. All these steps have a practical purpose for the English: to scrutinize all hypotheses until exhaustion so that, in case suspicions are not confirmed, any conclusion will be fully supported.

Q&A

How can a foreign police make an investigation in Portugal? They cannot. Therefore, as in this case, the authorities of the countries who want any type of investigative step to be pursued in another State must submit a request expressed in the designated letter rogatory, asking for the intended judicial assistance.

Who executes the request for judicial assistance of a foreign police? Letters rogatory are addressed to the Attorney General's Office (PGR), which analyses them and then decides on their admissibility. Once accepted, the Attorney General's Office sends them to the court in the area where the requested steps will be carried out. Then it is up to prosecutors of the Public Ministry to appoint which police authority will perform them, almost always the Judiciary Police, since most crimes subject to letters rogatory pertain to the investigative field that is the area of competence of that police force.

What if the requested investigation steps have already been carried out in other investigations made in that country? The investigative steps that are required to be accepted by the Attorney General's Office cannot have taken place under the scope of other investigations. When, for example, a search is requested for a specific place or when it is requested that a suspect is questioned which in the view of the requesting authority may have an important testimony to the resolution of a case, and those steps have to be done for the first time.

Can foreign police officers question or arrest suspects or make searches in Portugal? Not in any way. The entire execution of the investigative steps requested in letters rogatory must be the responsibility of the national criminal police force in the country of destination. In this case, in the application for judicial assistance that was sent to the PGR, where the Scotland Yard asks for three suspects to be questioned, it will be the PJ inspectors that will lead that questioning. The questions have to come previously outlined in the letter rogatory. The English police officers may attend the session but they cannot intervene.
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2014/01/british-police-want-to-question-three.html

[Eleanor]

He did and that was a mistake in my view but he isn't named on the writ and that part of the book is irrelevant to the Lisbon court.

Only for now.  Who knows who else will bring a Writ later?