Calgary Herald
11 June 2007
The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was in chaos Sunday night after the detective co-ordinating the hunt for her abductor was charged with criminal offences over another notorious missing child case.
Goncalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers were charged over the weekend with offences relating to the inquiry into the disappearance of Joana Cipriano from a village 11 kilometres from where Madeleine was abducted.
The nine-year-old girl has not been seen since her disappearance three years ago but her mother and uncle were convicted of murdering and dismembering Joana because she caught them having an incestuous relationship. Joana's mother, Leonor, has alleged that she was beaten into a confession during a police interrogation that took place without her lawyer or the knowledge of the public prosecutor.
Portugal's Ministerio Publico, the district attorney, confirmed Sunday that it had charged three police officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents.
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