Their determination of the appeal concludes with:-
In a concise manner:
The book at stake in this process – "Maddie – the Truth of the Lie" – which was written by the defendant Dr. Gonçalo Amaral, has the main motivation of defending his personal and professional honour, as the author points out right away in the preface and throughout his text.
The contents of the book does not offend any of the applicants' fundamental rights.
The exercise of its writing and publication is included in the constitutional rights that are secured to everyone by the European Convention on Human Rights and by the Portuguese Republic’s Constitution, namely in its articles 37º and 38º.
As we arrive at this point, we conclude that the decision that was made by the Court a quo must be revoked, and the analysis of the other issues that are placed under appeal are not justified, as they are considered prejudiced.
The appeal by defendant Dr. Gonçalo Amaral is sustained.
If the Tribunal de Relação (Court of Appeal) can state that the book does not offend any of the applicants (McCanns) fundamental rights I cannot see any lesser Court challenging that decision.
I was going to say that in that case there wasn't much point in having a trial.
However, the Prosecutor did not come to the same conclusion as Amaral did. Some of what he said / wrote is part of the (half-time) files, but numerous other details are not (e.g. hearsay) and his understanding of numerous aspects (e.g. the DNA issues) is totally flawed. To take just the DNA as an example, the average reader would not realise that he didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but might reasonably assume that a veteran police officer would.
In the film - to be fair to the producers - there is a short interview with Corte Real who agreed with Lowe. However, what he said wasn't easy to understand and I find it unlikely that the average viewer would have understood it and therefore glossed over it.
...All of them based on the right of freedom of expression of thought that is constitutionally consecrated and furthermore the fact that the statements and facts that were published in the book are the mere reproduction of solid data that is part of the investigation that was started at due time, and that said statements and facts are even part of the investigation's archiving dispatch that was signed by a Prosecutor of the Republic.
