RIDDLE: Madeleine McCann

Monday January 14,2008
By Padraic Flanagan in Praia da Luz

KATE and Gerry McCann fear Portuguese police are stalling the Madeleine investigation after failing to find evidence against them.

The couple – both official suspects – are furious that the police case has become mired in a legal muddle while no efforts are being made to find Madeleine.

They believe the police are stringing things out in the hope of uncovering a fact to back up their theory that the couple were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.

“Kate and Gerry are going through agony and think it’s high time the police put up or shut up,” said a close family friend. “Either charge them or clear them so that no more time is lost in getting back to looking for a little girl missing for more than eight months.”

The McCanns say investigators have stifled progress by wrapping the case in red tape. To add to their fears, Portugal’s Attorney General Fernando Pinto Monteiro wrote to the country’s prosecutors recently telling them to take as much time as they need to investigate cases such as Madeleine’s in secret.

His instruction came despite the recent introduction of a law which orders investigators to reveal their evidence to suspects within eight months of the first official suspect being named.

The secrecy laws surrounding the Madeleine case expire today, eight months after the first suspect, expat Robert Murat, was named.

The McCanns had hoped to see the evidence against them and begin clearing their names but state prosecutor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes has applied for a three-month extension, stating that the case is “exceptionally complicated”.