Maddy, nieuwe verhoren van de Tapas 7.

quote:

Op zaterdag 3 mei 2008 00:10 schreef Tmaatje het volgende:
@ Suko,
Door alle interviews enz van de McCanns ben ik me wel gaan afvragen waarom blijft het zo stil in Portugal?
Daar moeten inmiddels toch ook een aantal mensen met opgetroken wenkbrauwen naar deze show zitten te kijken ?

quote:

But it was reported that Kate McCann was being offered a deal. Admit accidentally killing Madeleine and face a reduced sentence. "You know, I'd have fought to the death to be honest at that point.There was no way I was going to be railroaded into something."

quote:

Mr McCann, 39, said: "This is a last chance to capture a lot of information which has maybe gone into the investigation and we are not privy to.

"Clearly we need to know that everything has been done. What we are asking people to do is if you have given information to police, Crimestoppers, the Portuguese police, we are asking you to give it to us as well.”

Somehow that does not ring right. I may be wrong but I understood that eye-witnesses were not able to release information to suspects in their own case? Already the McCanns have broken the Portuguese secrecy laws by talking about the evening of 3rd May when Madeleine disappeared, now they are asking anyone who has given information to the Portuguese police to give it to them as well.

Makes a person wonder if the speculation that the British government may be involved is true. You can read the whole article here: ITN

quote:

McCanns after Murat

The McCanns look for answers in Robert Murat, they are convinced of his involvement in the disappearance of their daughter. The multimillionaire that supports the expenses with lawyers and the private detectives of the Spanish agency "Método 3" went on purpose to Algarve to know the British.

Brian Kennedy offered to help him, although he was unable to explain how. Why? Why does he believe that Robert or his mother Jennifer might have seen someone on the night of 3rd of May in the area of the Ocean Club. He was prepared to pay to the best technicians to draw a photofit of a possible suspect. Saying one thing and then saying another he ended to say that Kate and Gerry believe that he is innocent and they never came publicly to accuse him but he insisted that Murat might remember some important detail to help them find Madeleine.

The JN knows that Murat did not accept the help of the multimillionaire. On the contrary he was upset with the questions that were made and with the insistence of the multimillionaire that wanted him to remember the night of the disappearance, when Murat always said that he spent the night in his mother's house, Jennifer, in Praia da Luz.

The meeting - a dinner that Brian Kennedy asked to be discreet and far away from the eyes of the press - took place in the end of last year at a house of Murat's relatives in Burgau (Vila do Bispo). At the dinner were present Murat and Kennedy, the respective lawyers, Jennifer Murat and the aunt and uncle of Murat.

After dinner was Brian Kennedy that finished the conversation. He could not explain why three friends of the couple, belonging to the group "Tapas 7" came publicly saying that they saw Robert Murat in the area of the Ocean Club in the night of 3 of May and he (Kennedy) ended to enter in contradiction.

Francisco Pagarete does not confirm this meeting but the JN knows that the PJ is aware and that they monitored the steps of Kennedy and the detectives of Método 3 very closely. According to the lawyer one year after the disappearance of Maddie, Murat "still does not understand how his name was involved in the case". "Everything is very strange" says the lawyer regretting that " a person was involved in this story without having nothing to do with it"

quote:

Op zondag 4 mei 2008 12:35 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

http://ionglobaltrends.bl(...)s-week-that-was.html

Nog maar even een quote van een blogger, ik weet dat het een griezel is Suko maar hier slaat hij de spijker imho wel op zijn kop, laten we hopen dat dit ook echt eens gaat gebeuren.

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Madeleine, the incidental onlooker

Come on, be honest. When Kate McCann appears before you on your television screen, do you sink your head low and remember poor Madeleine, somehow spirited out of that Praia da Luz apartment, or are you overwhelmed with a sense of irritation, annoyance and ennui?

Or like me, is it a little bit of both, callous pig that I am?

Madeleine went missing exactly a year ago. I very much hope she is found, but I very much doubt that she will be. And I’m absolutely certain that the latest anniversary publicity blitz will do nothing to help any of us - Kate, Gerry, the viewers - find anything about “Maddy”, one way or the other. Perhaps another dippy tourist will see some toddler in Chiang Mai or Torremolinos or Constanta and hysterically contact the media.

Kate and Gerry will be there to express hope and reiterate the point that they know they let her down by having a meal 100 metres away when they, or someone, should have been in rather closer contact.

The weird thing is the way the story has taken on a life of its own, with Madeleine as a terribly absent onlooker, almost incidental to the whole charade.

quote:

Tapas cook breaks silence about the McCanns[quote]Tapas Cook Video Translation

[Inside SIC Studio] > Filmpje, Portugees: Tapas Cook Breaks Silence and talks about the McCanns Meer op dit forum, the 3arguido's

Journalist on Studio: And tomorrow, 3rd of May marks a year since Madeleine McCann disappeared. There in Praia da Luz, Maria João [name of the other Journalist], good evening, is there any ceremonial service predicted?

[Cut to journalist on location]

Maria João: Here, in the Ocean Club, no, nothing is going to happen here to mark the date, just a mass that will be done tomorrow at 18:30pm in the church of Luz. A bilingual mass which is going to mark one year since the disappearance of Maddie. In relation to the process, there are no new developments expected for the next few days. Only in the 15th the Judge of Criminal Instruction from Portimão’s Court is going to reassess if the process continues or not under Secrecy of Justice. It’s very likely that the process continues like in the last year. Who broke the silence, while we're on the subject, were the Portuguese employees from the Tapas Bar, the restaurant where the couple McCann had dinner in the night of Maddie's disappearance. Those 8 Portuguese employees didn't see their contracts renewed this year. They were obliged in the last 12 months to be silent, forbidden to talk with journalists. Since their contracts were not renewed they decided to talk. SIC has spoken with the cook.

[Cut to medium shot of 2 people behind a tree]

Voice over Introduction: She doesn't 'show' her face but a year later and without working in the Ocean Club, Manuela decided that she wasn’t obliged to the silence anymore. The cook [chef] who prepared a 'Robalo' [Snook fish/ Sargeant fish] with cuscus [signature dish of the Arab world] and the pepper steak meal the McCanns had for dinner on the night Maddie disappeared was in the griller area 3 metres away from the table of the couple.

[Shot of interior of the Ocean Club, focus on the Tapas Bar]

Manuela, the cook: They had already eaten the main course, [Cut to blurry image of a woman’s face, with a strong southern accent from Algarve], because it was already around 9:30pm when she gave the alarm.

Voice over: This former employee from the Tapas tells that immediately various colleagues left their work posts to help the searches. Meanwhile, in the hours that followed, during most of the time the McCanns stayed inside the apartment.

Manuela: My colleagues were indignant [angered/offended], because they went… One of them even had his feet all red, tired… and he was offended because he went to search though he wasn't anything related to the girl, and the parents didn't. [Cut to apartment] They stayed indoors, in the apartment.

[Various shots around the Ocean Club, archive footage of Police and Media]

Voice Over: A year ago, suddenly everything changed in the Ocean Club. The quiet resort, ideal for family holidays, was invaded by police and journalists.

Manuela: The Ocean Club, the Tapas turned into pandemonium [chaos]. No one could get out, no one could get in. Even if we were married, our husbands couldn't get in, neither our friends. Everything was surrounded… The security officers didn't know the employees. They thought the employees were journalists. In the beginning everything was really complicated.

Voice Over: The Judiciary went in a full scale operation to Praia da Luz. For more than a month the investigators created a kind of headquarters in one of the apartments of the Ocean Club. All the employees from the resort were heard.

Manuela: They all went in two… in two hours by two hours, two [referring to the number of people –in pairs], during sometime. Close to a month. We were almost 200 employees.

Voice Over: Manuela remembers seeing Madeleine sometimes.

Manuela: When the Parents would put her at the crèche, in the babysitters, the kitchen was next to it.

Journalist on location: How was Madeleine’s routine during those holidays? When she entered there, in the Ocean Club?

Manuela: She got in, was delivered to the babysitters. The babysitters would do a class; they would do a group course with the girls. Between 4pm and 4:30pm they had something to eat. In the morning they had a fruit lunch [breakfast?]… And then the parents would come to pick them up at 5 o’clock in the afternoon.

Journalist: In the middle of all those children do you remember Maddie?

Manuela: Because she entered there, she would wave goodbye, or say hello…She was really nice [lovely/polite]. She was always smiling.

Voice Over: After the disappearance of the girl, several family members of Kate and Gerry came to the Algarve.

Manuela: I remember that the family members instead of being worried with the family, would go to the pool, rented the tennis court, played tennis… Instead of being worried about the child that had disappeared!

Voice Over: The majority of the employees who were in the Tapas in the night of the Maddie’s disappearance have already left the resort.

Manuela: The contract ended and they sent us to unemployment.

Journalist: All the team that was in the Tapas that night?

Manuela: All the team that was there in that night.

Voice Over: After the disappearance of Maddie, the McCanns stayed in the Ocean Club for 65 days more. In July they moved to a house in the outskirts, away from the journalists eyes. It was there that they stayed until the 9 of September, the day that they went back to England.

quote:

20/12/07
The waiter’s testimony

WITNESS GOES ON THE RUN ‘TO PROTECT HIS EVIDENCE’

THE key witness in the missing Madeleine McCann case was in hiding last night after fleeing Portugal. Police have sworn the waiter to secrecy over his vital testimony and know where he is. But friends say he is terrified his identity is about to be revealed and that he will come under pressure from rival factions in the case. He is scared of British and Portuguese government influence in the probe. Friends claim he is also wary of the team of private eyes hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to help find their daughter. MADELEINE McCann’s disappearance could only be the fault of her parents or a family friend, it was claimed yesterday.

MCCANNS OR A FRIEND MUST BE TO BLAME

A crucial eyewitness accuses the McCanns of being irresponsible parents.

The waiter who served them on that fateful night says he cannot understand why they did not use the resort’s £10-a-night babysitting service. He even goes on to claim that he told police: “I did not think she had been taken by an abductor. “I told them it had to be one of the family or a friend. It had to be someone close.” Jose Batista, 45, broke almost six months of silence to give the most detailed account yet of the McCanns’ holiday and the build-up to Madeleine’s disappearance. Mr Batista, who served the McCanns and their friends at the tapas restaurant where they were dining on the night Madeleine disappeared, says they could not have seen their apartment from their table, as they have claimed. He also says he was surprised that they apparently made a special arrangement with staff so that they could leave their children alone on four consecutive nights to eat at the tapas bar near their apartments in the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz with their friends, dubbed the Tapas Nine.

“The group did check on their children regularly,” he told the Daily Express. “I know that because I often took food to the table and found one of them was not there. “I would take it back to the kitchen to heat it up. But it was always the men who went to check, never the women. “The only time I can remember Kate McCann leaving the table was the night that the little girl disappeared. “It didn’t really mean anything at the time, but after all that happened I did begin to think that it was slightly strange. Why had Kate suddenly gone to check on the children that time, when she never had before?” Mr Batista said that it was his testimony in four hours of interviews with Portuguese detectives that led to officers questioning why it was part-time GP Kate, 39, who discovered her daughter had vanished and raised the alarm.

The waiter said the McCanns and their friends had approached the resort manager to ask if they could eat at the tapas bar rather than the main restaurant as they had on the first two nights of their holiday. The parents had complained that their children were staying out past their bedtimes when they ate at the main restaurant and were becoming tired and fractious. He said Mark Warner managers apparently agreed and a table was set for the group at the tapas bar. It was nearer to their apartments than the main restaurant and the group felt comfortable leaving their children unattended. For four consecutive evenings the McCanns and their seven friends left their children alone for periods of a few minutes as they drank beer and cocktails and up to 10 bottles of wine between them. But their decision ended in tragedy when Madeleine vanished from the McCanns’ apartment on May 3. Mr Batista’s revelations come as Portuguese police announced that Kate and Gerry’s friends are to face new questioning.

Mr Batista said it was impossible to see the McCanns’ ground-floor apartment from the restaurant despite it being less than 100 yards away. He said: “They left their children alone. If I was in their position I certainly wouldn’t have done that. “If they’ve got money why didn’t they get the cash together to get one nanny to look after all the children in one apartment? It is not right to say you can see their apartment from the restaurant. All you can see is the first floor upwards.” He added: “A few days after Madeleine disappeared I gave a very detailed statement to police like all the other staff. “I told them I did not think she had been taken by an abductor. It would not have been possible to be watching their apartment. “During the evening the streets are quite deserted in that area. I told them it had to be one of the family or a friend. It had to be someone close.” (...)Mr Batista said he was working in the poolside restaurant every night of the McCanns’ holiday.

He said: “They were very classy people. Compared with some of the people we get, they were very polite and quiet. They dressed well and didn’t make a mess or put their feet on chairs, anything like that. “If they hadn’t been such a big group I probably wouldn’t have noticed them at all.” Describing their evening routine he said: “It was always the whole group that went to dinner. “They always ate here, always at the same time and it was always the whole group – four couples and an older woman. “The package they were on included their dinner in the evening, and free wine to go with the meal until dessert is served. “You often get people who keep screaming for more wine or are stupid about the rules, trying to drink as much as possible because it’s free. But the McCanns and their friends were very sensible about it. “Sometimes they would start off with the men having a beer while the women would drink cocktails. It’s been reported that they had 14 bottles of wine a night but I was serving them and I know it was usually between eight and 10. “Afterwards they would mostly just have a coffee or sit around chatting rather than order more alcohol.”

He added: “The group always came around 8pm, arrived within five minutes of each other and ordered their dinner, and they always left together as a group between 10.30pm and 11pm.” Mr Batista described in detail for the first time the events that unfolded the night Madeleine disappeared. He said he was one of four waiting staff on duty during a busy period. Mr Batista said: “I had seen them with the kids by the pool during the day. It was a normal night.

They came at more or less the same time they always arrived. “The adults were obviously enjoying some quiet time, and I realised they were taking it in turns to check on the children. “I remember the men going off to check the children about every 20 minutes.” But around 10pm chaos erupted after Kate returned to the table to alert the group that Madeleine had vanished. Mr Batista said: “It all became madness. We were beginning to wind down at the restaurant and I had been clearing some tables. “I went into the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came out I saw that the McCanns’ table was empty except for the older woman. She looked scared.

“Then I heard all the shouting and screaming coming from the apartments and my colleague told me a child had gone missing.“After that it was chaos. People were running around the resort shouting for Madeleine and we all started to help looking for her.“My partner and I were both trying to help out. We took our cars out and searched for her. There was nothing organised.”

quote:

"Team McCann have spent enormous time and energy on counterclaiming claims, persuading the public towards an abduction theory and claiming that the Portuguese police are bumbling, all of which has focused the public’s attention on Kate and Gerry McCann, but perhaps not in the favourable light they had hoped for.But if it is true that they want to slip out of the public spotlight, I wonder what impact their silence will have on the internet. Will there be a ‘need’ for blogs and forums that have been driven by an urge to balance what has appeared to be a rather one-sided case? “Cutting through the Rubbish” will possibly die a death if there is nothing to write about."

quote:

dat er misschien wel losgeld was geeist en dat daarom de kranten betaald hebben bij die schikking, dat weet ik zo net nog niet, maar het zou wel kunnen, hij zit niet echt in de materie, ik heb hem gisteren een beetje uitgelegd wat er allemaal precies aan de hand is, toen kwam hij hier dus mee. Een frisse blik, mischien zit er iets in, dan zouden Metodo3 dus de onderhandelingen voeren en het Maddy fund gebruikt worden om losgeld te betalen, we zullen zien.

quote:

"Although initially reluctant, the McCanns finally informed the media of Madeleine’s unique right eye—a risky revelation. Whoever had taken the child now held a universally recognizable little girl. Gerry understood that. But, he says, the iris “is Madeleine’s only true distinctive feature. Certainly we thought it was possible that this could potentially hurt her or”—he grimaces—“her abductor might do something to her eye.… But in terms of marketing, it was a good ploy.”

quote:

The PJ waits for 9 months for the complete tests

A year after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and nine months after the collection of biological vestiges, the sophisticated and prestigious forensic lab of Birmingham, in England, did not send yet to the PJ the final reports of all the analysis. The JN found that is missing the complete examination to the hairs found in several places and that could help the complex investigation. The PJ was already informed informally that technically will not be possible to determine through DNA analysis if the hair samples belong to Maddie. This is due to fact that the hairs have no capillary tubes.

For this reason, it won't be possible to determine in scientific terms if the hairs found in the boot of the car hired by the McCanns and in the flat of the Ocean Club belong to Madeleine or to one of her brothers. The only data that is possible to obtain without capillary tube is the identification of the mother.

So, the toxicological tests to the same samples are also compromised, they could help to discover if the child took any products that accidentally could cause her death. This is one of the work hypothesis followed by the PJ although they continue to receive almost everyday clues about possible locations of Madeleine, the JN discovered. Some of the denounces are being transmitted by embassies spread all over the world.

Without the complete tests the PJ only has inconclusive data. The September's report of last year about the biological vestiges detected in the boot of the car was important to make the decision of constituting the parents arguidos. In the document, the experts explain that from the 20 "strands" (DNA parcels) detected in the fluids, 15 coincide with the genetic profile of Maddie. But in reality this result does not exclude the possibility that the vestige - that the English lab could not guarantee if it was blood since it was very dry - might belong to a relative of Maddie.

According to information collected by the JN this report was discussed between the Portuguese and British experts and the last ones raised some doubts about what they have written previously (this was the one that Kate and Gerry McCann refuse to reply when questioned).

Irish advances and backtracks

Apart from the results of the analysis made to the vestiges, the PJ has several depositions. An Irish that spent holidays with the family at Praia da Luz, in May last year, guaranteed to the PJ that he saw a man with a child in his lap in the night of 3rd of May. Later he said informally that that man seemed to be Gerry McCann.

This comment of the Smith's family appeared when they observed the images of the McCanns arriving in England at 9th of September. The way Gerry held Sean in his lap when he got out of the plane in the East Midlands airport and the clothes he was wearing, described in the first deposition, were useful to the witness "to clarify the ideas".

But when the PJ wanted to formalise that deposition the witness backtracked and revealed that he was not sure that the person he saw was Gerry. This deposition ended to give credibility to Jane Tanner's words, a friend of the couple, that guarantees having seen a man with a child in the night Madeleine disappeared.

The investigators opted to listen again the witnesses but decide that the depositions would be made through rogatory letters sent to the Leicester police. Before this step was fulfilled, in April, this family was contacted by detectives of Método 3. The JN discovered that since that contact the certainties of the Smiths ended.

Nonetheless the clue ended not to be solid since the British dogs did not detected any cadaver odor in Gerry's clothes contrary to what happened with Kate's clothes. The PJ continues to have many doubts about what really happened between 18,00 and 22,00 hours, when Kate alerted to the disappearance. Everything points to the fact that the reenactment will never happen due to the lack of will of the McCanns.

quote:

Metodo 3 are currently trying to re-interview an Irish family who said they saw a man carrying away a child on the night Madeleine disappeared. Martin Smith and his family-from Drogheda in Co. Louth, told police about the sighting - which is strikingly similar to one by a friend of the McCanns, Jane Tanner.

They described a barefoot child and a man wearing beige trousers walking towards the beach in Praia da Luz, about 400yards from the McCanns' holiday apartment. However, they said that the man was definitely not official suspect Robert Murat, whom they had met before and would have recognised." Mr Smith even flew back to Portugal to give evidence but said he had not been contacted by police since making a statement in May

quote:

Almeida Rodrigues is the successor to Alípio Ribeiro in the Polícia Judiciária Publico 06 May 2008
^{(Thanks to 'beachy' from the3arguidos for translation)}
Almeida Rodrigues is the successor of Alípio Ribeiro as director of the Policia Judiciaria. It is the first time that the PJ is led by a career investigator. Almeida Rodrigues, now in charge of the PJ in Coimbra, was named as national director, after Alípio Ribeiro today presented his resignation to Justice Minister Alberto Costa.

Jose Maria de Almeida Rodrigues, 49 years, degree in law, is coordinator of criminal investigation of the PJ and was one of three deputy directors at the national office of the former director Santos Cabral. The appointment of Almeida Rodrigues to direct the PJ has since been released by the communications office of the Ministry of Justice, where it is said that the Minister of Justice "has accepted the request for resignation which was delivered today by the national director of the PJ (Alípio Ribeiro)."

Almeida Rodrigues, along with Luis Neves, current head of the Central Directorate for Combating Banditismo (DCCB) in the PJ, was one of two names that, in recent hours, have been considered by the authorities as successors to Alípio Ribeiro, as a police source previously told Lusa.

quote:

Why is Madeleine an Obsession? - Open Letter to a Reader

I do understand your feelings. For a long time I even dreamt with this little girl, that picture broadcasted so many times was recurrent in my thoughts - her big eyes, biting her lip, so sweet and innocent - the images bombarded in the media brought to each one of us Madeleine, Maddie, Maddy, to our house, to our family, she was present in all the opening news and she won a place in the globalized society's heart and mind. And so did all the "characters" of this sordid affair.

In the beginning I thought it was strange the way the media was portraying the group of parents that stayed in the Tapas bar that night. The parents who left 3 children younger than 4 years old were almost sanctified in the British media and instead of seeing the McCanns questioned by journalists, what I saw was a pressure in the British media editorial guidelines to maintain the defence of the McCanns at all cost even if they had to defame and vilify others like Murat, Amaral, the Judiciary Portuguese Police... Even the remaining friends, the Tapas 7 were never questioned regarding their own selfish attitudes and neglect towards their own children - and that is very unusual in the British Press.

A few days later the McCanns were jogging, playing tennis, creating a media circus, calling high profile politics, diplomats, public relations, creating a trademark for a non-charitable fund, accusing the police of framing them...

I have seen the Mothers of other missing children, like the mother of Rui Pedro, and her eyes tell me the deep sadness and anguish she has endured for the last 10 years. Rui was 11 years old when he went missing on 4th March 1998, apparently he was kidnapped in to a paedophile ring. The boy's mother, Filomena at every opportunity and without a fund travelled to various places, even to see photographs with terrible pictures of boys being sodomized which appear to be similar to Rui. Filomena doesn't cry in public but her twisted facial expression shows an empty soul, her lifeless eyes express a pain and a despair that I only see in mothers in Africa who can't feed and see their children die, in mothers where war prevails and see their sons and daughters killed by guns and bombs - it's an intense emotional suffering and that grief transpires in all this Mothers actions, body language, eyes...

Then I watched the McCanns reading from a script their first statement/appeal to the Media - Where was the affliction, the calamity, the despair that should be there? It didn't seem genuine; images of parents in grief were strikingly different from the McCanns. Kate left the twins alone on the same night the alleged kidnapper took Madeleine, they left the twins in the crèche while campaigning and giving press conferences, they jogged, went to the pool, posed for the media in the beach as a couple in love, they left the twins again alone when they did a Periplus in Europe and in the United States, recent images in video show they laughing in the month Madeleine disappeared...

Even stranger, every time there was a possible sighting of Madeleine, they travelled in to a different place. Unlike Mr. Cortés, the Father of poor Mari Luz, who travelled to Naples, Italy to see an unidentified child though he had an appointment in Portugal with authorities to help the search for his daughter.

I will never forget how the McCanns used Mari Luz pictures without the Cortés family's permission.

In the following months what I saw was a selfish couple more interested in hiring high profile extradition and defence lawyers, hiring spokespersons, defending their image in the media, all calculated, all premeditated. Why?

I saw a spokesman inciting man hunts and using methods like some said "more like the police than the police"- hunts of Moroccan, Gypsy or Mediterranean looking men all based in sketches of witness that gave us the Egg Man, the Bundleman and after 9 months a George Harrison look a like.

I saw a Spanish Agency of detectives coming to Portugal and questioning people though it's illegal, some of those witnesses stated they felt harassed and feared the Metodo3 agents, the same detective that went to Morocco was arrested afterwards connected to narco traffick. Malinka's car was set on fire.... Gordon and Socrates had a meeting where they talked about this process... The Home Office delay in accepting the Rogatory Letter. The huge delay from the FSS Lab results...There are just to many odd and strange connections in this case.

The Portuguese Police was damaged politically since the first night of 3rd May, the Portuguese and Portugal were portrayed as a third world country were cops were corrupted, democracy didn't exist and the system of justice was worst than in North Korea (almost). Racism and open xenophobia was acceptable and some like Parsons, Heffer, expressed it with pure hate in the press while others like MEP Knapman and his assessor Piers Merchant or Timothy Dutton QC attacked and switched the case of a missing child into a 'us versus them' tactic of war, diplomatically and politically.

Owner's of media corporations played the case of a missing girl like a soap opera, an entertainment to be sold as news. Backing the biggest and dirtiest propaganda campaign in support of two persons suspected by the police of involvement in the disappearance of their child. Why?

I thought that I had a role to play, not only for Madeleine, so justice can be done, independently who the guilty ones may be but as well to to uphold for what is right and fair regarding my own country - Portugal.

For all the 'Madeleines' and the future parents of missing children who will be received with a more cynical eye by the police, general public and media either this case is solved or not.

For me and for what values and ethics were instilled in me by my parents and as a Free Portuguese Citizen born in April 1974- the year of the Carnation Revolution. These are some of the reasons to write this blog.

For Justice.

quote:

Op woensdag 7 mei 2008 14:02 schreef kahaarin het volgende:
<knip>

Goh, al eerder geschreven, waar dan? Je hebt gelijk hoor, al dat gedoe over die reconstructie, schone konten zeg ik je, schone konten.
[..]

<knip>
[..]

In spin de boog ging in, uit spuit de verklaring uit.

Dat die chief is opgestapt vind ik overigens wel een goede zaak, als de McConns blij met hem waren dan heeft hij ze gewoon te veel hun zin gegeven, hij stond wrs onder te veel druk en heeft zich misschien wel iets te veel aan hun kant geschaard, dat pikt de PJ natuurlijk van geen kanten.
<knip>

quote:

"Alípio Ribeiro, the national director of the judicial police, reportedly told a local radio station he was "tired" of being in the media spotlight. He had made a number of public comments about Madeleine's disappearance, despite judicial secrecy laws. In February, he said police had been "hasty" in naming her parents."

quote:

An operational one to front the PJ SOL
^{Ana Paula Azevedo
07 May 2008 (Thanks to 'SS' from the3arguidos forum for translation)}
Almeida Rodrigues is the first non-magistrate chosen to lead the Judicial Police. The successor of Alípio Ribeiro is currently the national deputy sub-director of PJ’s Coimbra Directorate.

It is not the first time he assumes a leadership role, as he was one of the three national deputy directors to Santos Cabral, the head of the PJ immediately before Alípio Ribeiro. José Maria de Almeida Rodrigues, 49 years old, has a university degree in law and has made his career as an investigator. Through his hands passed some very public murder cases.

When, in 2001, he was heading Aveiro's PJ, he was the one in charge of the investigation of Tó Jó, the young man who murdered his parents inspired by satanic rituals. With the resignation of Santos Cabral, Almeida Rodrigues worked as number 2 of Coimbra's PJ. In those functions, he dealt with another multiple murder case – the GNR corporal Antonio Costa.

This case – which was known as "the serial killer of Santa Comba Dão" ended in the conviction of the corporal for the murder of two young women. More recently, he was involved in the arrest of "El Solitario", the Spaniard accused of violent robberies to more than 30 banks which caused the death of 3 people.

The nomination of Almeida Rodrigues to head the PJ was announced through a communiqué of the Ministry of Justice where it is referred that the minister "accepted the resignation request handed today by the national director of the PJ, Alípio Ribeiro".

Almeida Rodrigues, with Luis Neves current head of the Direcção Central de Combate ao Banditismo (DCCB) (Central Directorate of Combat to Banditism) was one of the names that, in the last hours, were considered by the government to replace Alípio Ribeiro, as had been stated to Lusa by a police source.

Magistrates: never again?

His name is highly regarded within the PJ, being the first time that an 'operational' is nominated to the top Job, up to now it has always been headed by magistrates. There is great expectation in the PJ as to who will be his deputies. The nomination of magistrates is dependent on the approval of the Judiciary and Public Ministry Superior Councils.

There is some speculation that these Councils may not accept that a judge or magistrate work under the orders of a career police officer. If that would be the case, it could be the end of the magistrates in the top echelons of the PJ. Only in 2001 a change in the law allowed for the possibility of a non-magistrate heading the PJ. With Almeida Rodrigues, it is the first time such a possibility is actually taken. Bron