Latest news on the search for Madeleine McCann

[Kazcutt]

I don't believe he was at home eating a sandwhich with his mother that night and heard nothing till the morning .that Russian malinka and his friends were a weird bunch . I watched the sky reporter ask him about Murat and he said I don't have sex with children .
He was very strange and Mathew fazaraky (think that was his name ) Optimus fett
Fala

[Carana]

Intriguingly, lawyers representing TVI and Amaral’s publishers Guerra e Paz remarked at the absence of journalists in the courtroom and the “repeated and convenient visits by Scotland Yard” “whenever there is a trial in session” to “deviate attention”.

LOL That's almost on a par with satellites being deviated from PdL.

Do they seriously think that both police forces, with all the organisation of witnesses involved, plan their schedules to deviate attention from a legal hearing in Lisbon, which might not have even taken place as half of them get adjourned at the last minute anyway?

[VIXTE]

Intriguingly, lawyers representing TVI and Amaral’s publishers Guerra e Paz remarked at the absence of journalists in the courtroom and the “repeated and convenient visits by Scotland Yard” “whenever there is a trial in session” to “deviate attention”.

LOL That's almost on a par with satellites being deviated from PdL.

Do they seriously think that both police forces, with all the organisation of witnesses involved, plan their schedules to deviate attention from a legal hearing in Lisbon, which might not have even taken place as half of them get adjourned at the last minute anyway?

Please! This is Madeleine case news thread. There is a thread about Amaral, for people who are interested.

There might be some people in here who are interested purely in finding Madeleine and not in endless chess playing in between [ censored word] and pros. Especially not in Amaral's personality cult..

[valeria]

They are treated as witnesses at the moment, not any kind of suspects.

I've just read MW's statement again and nowhere she accuses her ex husband so she telling this to Amaral might be a myth..

It is reported in Amaral's book. Somebody here had a quote in english. It seemed so strange that i searched in google and found a pdf with the book in portoguese. Although i have limited knowledge of this language  i am sure that this is what he meant. These are exactly the words from the book.

Michaela parece atirar as culpas do rapto de madeleine para cima do marido.

Maybe someone with better knowledge of portuguese could confirm this.

[Brietta]

This means eight witnesses saw Murat near the apartment that night and 'blows to bits' Murat's alibi that he was at his mother's house the entire night Madeleiene went missing.

I find it all very confusing. 

All he had to say to avoid suspicion was that he heard a commotion and was helping in the search. 
Under the circumstances no-one would have found his presence at the scene untoward ... and he would have had at least eight witnesses to the fact he was doing what they were doing ... looking for Madeleine.

I think having eight witnesses to your whereabouts beats having your mother as your only alibi witness hands down.

[misty]

I find it all very confusing. 

All he had to say to avoid suspicion was that he heard a commotion and was helping in the search. 
Under the circumstances no-one would have found his presence at the scene untoward ... and he would have had at least eight witnesses to the fact he was doing what they were doing ... looking for Madeleine.

I think having eight witnesses to your whereabouts beats having your mother as your only alibi witness hands down.

You also have to question why an unnamed friend of his found it necessary to invent a false alibi, claiming that they were both in a coffee shop at the time & the suspect was drunk.

[colombosstogey]

So now everyone is concentrating on Michaela and Murat again.....arnt they witnessess?

Doesnt this mean they mean hold VITAL information to what could have happened to the child or something of interested? Both have been interviewed before and neither were accused.

As to extending the interview well i am not surprised i thought they had UNDERESTIMATED the time they would need to interview 11 witnesses, i expected 2 weeks at least taking out weekend.

Jeez i only went to police to report money stolen from my handbag at work and was there with the officer for TWO HOURS lol.....

We cant keep going back to what happened 7 years ago as it was made irrelevant and people have moved on, well are TRYING to move on.....

[Mr Gray]

This interest in Murat is very interesting.

[VIXTE]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30443689?

BBC has sade's map? kind of..

[stephen25000]

This interest in Murat is very interesting.

Not at all.

It sounds like Birching.

Pun intended.

[jassi]

I find it all very confusing. 

All he had to say to avoid suspicion was that he heard a commotion and was helping in the search. 
Under the circumstances no-one would have found his presence at the scene untoward ... and he would have had at least eight witnesses to the fact he was doing what they were doing ... looking for Madeleine.

I think having eight witnesses to your whereabouts beats having your mother as your only alibi witness hands down.

On the other hand, if he was at home at the time, why should he say otherwise?

Eye witnesses are notoriously unreliable, we are told, so unless they knew him well, could easily be mistaken for someone else with a passing resemblance, particularly as it was night-time.

[Anna]

Posted by portugalpress on December 10, 2014

McCann defamation case comes to court as media concentrates on Algarve


Final arguments in the €1 million case for defamation brought five years ago by the parents of Madeleine McCann against former PJ policeman Gonçalo Amaral were being heard in court in Lisbon on Wednesday morning.

The judge’s decision on the case is expected to come in February.

Amaral told newspapers this week that throughout the trial the McCanns have “tried to pass off the idea that what is being judged is their innocence”.

“Legally, this is not at issue at all,” he told Jornal de Notícias this week. “What is at issue is the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the book I wrote and, if so, whether it is possible to establish a causality link between the book and the possible damages they allege to have suffered.”

As the spotlight once again shifted to Amaral’s book “A Verdade da Mentira (The Truth of the Lie)” in Lisbon, miles south in the Algarve a new selection of key witnesses prepared for a day of questioning by visiting Met detectives working on Operation Grange.

[Anna]

It is reported in Amaral's book. Somebody here had a quote in english. It seemed so strange that i searched in google and found a pdf with the book in portoguese. Although i have limited knowledge of this language  i am sure that this is what he meant. These are exactly the words from the book.

Michaela parece atirar as culpas do rapto de madeleine para cima do marido.

Maybe someone with better knowledge of portuguese could confirm this.

Thank you valeria,
You will find this in the english version in chapter 7 "Murat case"

[Anna]

Not exactly new, but todays news anyway.....

 Former Madeleine McCann suspect Robert Murat quiz...12-12-14




Former Madeleine McCann suspect Robert Murat quizzed at Algarve police station for four hours by Met detectives

▪ IT consultant was driven into Faro Police Station through a back entrance
▪ It was the second time in three days he had attended the station
▪ Murat is being quizzed as a witness in the Madeleine McCann case
▪ The 41-year-old was originally a suspect, but subsequently cleared
▪ He was the last of ten men and women quizzed as witnesses this week

By Gerard Couzens for MailOnline
12 December 2014

Former suspect Robert Murat was questioned for more than four hours today at an Algarve police station over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The IT consultant, 41, was driven away from Faro Police Station late lunchtime along with his lawyer Francisco Pagarete after answering questions as a witness.

It was the second time in three days he had attended the station.

Police were due to quiz the British expat on Wednesday but ran out of time after interviewing his German-born wife Michaela Walczuch, 38, as a witness.

He was the last of ten men and women - four Brits, a German and five Portuguese nationals - quizzed as witnesses this week on the Algarve at Scotland Yard’s request.

A British woman described as the wife of one of the Portuguese witnesses is also understood to have been questioned in the UK.

There was no immediate word on what Mr Murat had been asked or replied.

The interviews were conducted behind closed doors and Mr Pagarete declined to comment.

Michaela did not return to the police station with her husband today.

There was no sign either of Operation Grange boss Andy Redwood or DCI Nicola Wall, who is due to take charge of the British police probe into Madeleine’s disappearance when he retires later this month.

The police quiz of Mr Murat, made a formal suspect or arguido days after Madeleine went missing on May 3 2007 before being cleared a year later, had been expected to last until much later in the day.

Speaking before he received his official notification, he said: 'My conscience is clear and I have no problem speaking to police again.'

Michaela, Mr Murat's girlfriend when Madeleine vanished, was questioned three times as a witness after the youngster's disappearance.

A Portuguese lorry driver later came forward to say he had seen a blonde woman he said resembled estate agent Michaela passing a blanket containing a child to a man on an Algarve farm the day after Madeleine vanished.

A Spanish woman also claimed she had spotted her in a town in northern Morocco in June 2007, moments after she had seen a girl who looked just like Madeleine.

Michaela, whose home was searched by Portuguese police after Madeleine disappeared, complained of being treated like dirt by detectives and claimed Kate and Gerry McCann's former detective agency Metodo 3 had cynically used her.

Protesting her innocence in a December 2007 interview with a UK newspaper, she said: 'I lost my faith not just in justice but in the whole system and everyone that supports it.

'The worst part is people putting me in this, knowing I have nothing to do with it.

'They have no feelings, no heart. They are completely empty.

'When Robert called me to tell me that there was a story about these sightings I went into town and I just saw my face on the front of all the papers. I felt sick.

'I just wanted to scream 'I didn't do it'.

The police quizzes taking place this week are the first since four men were questioned as arguidos at the start of July.

All four - who included Russian businessman Sergey Malinka and a schizophrenic heroin addict - insisted they had nothing to do with Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

British police believe Madeleine was killed during a bungled burglary, a theory their Portuguese counterparts who are conducting their own parallel investigation into Madeleine's disappearance have privately rubbished.

Parts of the Praia da Luz resort where the youngster vanished were dug up in June at Scotland Yard's request in a grim search for her body - but failed to yield any clues.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2871343/Former-Madeleine-McCann-suspect-Robert-Murat-arrives-Algarve-police-station-questioning-Met-detectives.html

[jassi]

Can we assume from that report that he is no longer being questioned?