That maybe so but they were on the case. We can debate til the cows come home whether or not they should have been it will not change the fact.
My point was:
Had I been the honcho in charge of an investigation that had suddenly mushroomed to become of international interest I would have elbowed from the inquiry anyone who looked like they could become a liability for whatever reason. Forgetting names and all that haraz would you want the coordinator of case like that to be a man who was about to be charged with criminal offence?. What would you do under circumstances?
What happened was the only logical action. No conspiracy no nothing just a sound business move.
If I've understood you correctly (although I'm not certain that I have), I would agree.
I think that anyone sensible would have "promoted" them to other investigations pronto, far away from the media.
Issues may have been that:
- the superiors thought that the case would be resolved quickly, but it wasn't and the whole situation escalated into chaos;
- there was no internal diplomatic system in place in which to quietly replace the original team quickly without too many feathers being ruffled.
- there was no PJ media service, until they wheeled in poor de Sousa to have a face in front of the cameras to say absolutely nothing new - and therefore the tabloids started poking their noses around;
- the head of Faro at the time (old school) may already have been seriously ill at the time and was unable to cope with the stress of both personal and professional issues (he did die, RIP);
- regional police sensitivities were no doubt delicate;
- there was no one else to replace them at regional level... and superiors (whoever they may have been once Faro honcho was very ill) may have not wanted to draw media attention to looming investigations into the key investigators already involved in the Madeleine case concerning other cases;
- there were all kinds of potential corruption issues looming involving regional politicians, some of which may involve police officers (as in the UK and elsewhere), although not much appears to be clear for the moment;
- Amaral ended up as
de facto head honcho and didn't appreciate the support from the UK, but neither did he appreciate the boys from Lisbon brought in to "assist". Instead of appreciating the support, he seemed to have taken it as an insult.
The problem, however, was that he was totally out of his depth and refused to admit it.