Tuesday 15 January 2008

Eurojust confirms request to re-interview the Tapas group

From the blog written by Paulo Reis, Gazeta Digital, 15the January, 2008

http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/

"A spokesman from Eurojust confirmed to The Press Association that Portuguese authorities made a formal request to the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency to help in the process of questioning again the group of British citizens that was at Ocean Club, with Gerry and Kate McCann, when Madeleine vanished.

A PJ team is scheduled to fly to UK, soon, to follow the questioning by Leicester police, according to Press Association. Eurojust role is to help investigators and prosecutors in European Union for information and assistance in crime cases involving more than one country."

European Judicial Cooperation Unit (EUROJUST)

Gazeta Digital, 14th January 2008.

No evidence of Canary islands connection to the Madeleine case.

"The line of inquiry in Madeleine’s case remains the same and is focused in the group of British citizens that were with the child’s family. There is no indication that the person arrested in the Spanish Islands has been in Portugal”, according to the same source."

Also on 14th January, Paulo Reis asserts that two more people could be named official suspects, arguidos, and that without diplomatic intervention the McCanns would not have been allowed to leave Portugal in September, but would have been arrested and charged.

"If it wasn’t the diplomatic intervention, the McCann wouldn’t be authorized to leave Portugal and would have been charged and arrested on September”, a source from Polícia Judiciária said. With the bureaucratic aspects for a new questioning of the Tapas Group finished, Police admits that two more formal suspects could be named, “if the questioning takes place as we expect."

Paulo Reis quotes a police source as saying that the McCanns publicity campaign was intended to draw attention from Praia da Luz, where, the PJ believe the answer to the disappearance of Madeleine MCann is to be found.

"Clear intention

The campaign set up in the Media, since the beginning, was planned and had a specific intention: to take the case out from Praia da Luz,” the PJ source said. This intention was already clear months ago, on July last year, when detectives in charge of the investigation told the Portuguese Press that “all clues related to foreign countries have been investigated and dismissed”. At the time, it was also clear to PJ that “the key to solve the case was at Praia da Luz.”

There has been speculation on vaious internet forums about the possible date for the arrival of the PJ in the UK. There has also been speculation that no one is coming, but according to Gazeta Digital and The Peterborough Telegraph, (quoting the Press Association) it has been confirmed that Eurojust has been approached and that the PJ will be arriving on our shores pretty soon!

Peterborough Telegraph


"
Portuguese investigators seeking to re-interview friends of Madeleine McCann's parents, from Leicestershire, are in contact with the UK authorities via an intermediary.Portuguese police seeking to re-interview the "Tapas Seven" are reportedly in contact with the British authorities via Eurojust.

They are understood to be poised to fly to the UK to sit in on fresh questioning of the friends by British police.

The seven were on holiday in Praia da Luz in the Algarve with Kate and Gerry McCann when their daughter vanished last year."

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