LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – What are the implications of the return home by Gerry and Kate McCann, parents of the missing Madeleine?
The McCanns have stressed that their return to Britain was “with the full agreement of the Portuguese authorities and police”, the Telegraph reports.
The couple went out of their way to comply with Portuguese law which, as they understood it, prevented them from commenting further on the police investigation.
The one remark they did feel able to make – “we played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter, Madeleine” – could not possibly be held against them.
Joao Miguel Medina, a London-based Portuguese lawyer, confirmed that this plea of innocence could not have breached his country’s legal code.
It would, of course, be entirely normal in Britain for a person suspected of a crime to deny the allegations. Failure to do so might even be seen by some as an admission of guilt.
But the question now for the McCanns and their advisers is whether they should go further and say, in public and in detail, how they feel about being treated as formal suspects in the death of their daughter.
Provided the couple remain in Britain, there is little that the Portuguese authorities can do to stop them speaking their minds.
