EX POLICE CHIEF BLASTS MCCANNS

Show-offs!  Ex police cheif blasts McCanns
Vanessa Allen
12 December 2009
Daily Mail

Madeleine McCann's parents were accused of 'showing off' yesterday by the policeman who dragged them in for questioning as suspects. (See: Wikileaks Cable dated 28 September 2007)

Goncalo Amaral added to Kate and Gerry McCann's anguish as they returned to Portugal for the latest stage in their legal battle over his book about the investigation into their daughter's disappearance.

The disgraced policeman, who led the botched inquiry, claimed they had launched legal action against him to protect their public image in Britain.

Mr and Mrs McCann, both 41, came face-to-face with Mr Amaral for the first time since he ordered their interrogation as official suspects in their daughter's disappearance. He claims Madeleine is dead.

The couple have accused him of making 'obscene' amounts of money from the high-profile case and have previously won a court injunction to ban the book from being sold worldwide.

Yesterday, Mr Amaral's lawyer had been due to argue that the injunction should be lifted, but said he could not attend court because of illness. The hearing was adjourned until next month. As they left the courthouse in Lisbon, the McCanns were heckled by protesters shouting: 'Viva Goncalo Amaral, Viva Portugal! [Long live Goncalo Amaral, Long live Portugal!]'

Looking distraught, Mrs McCann said the detective's book had upset her family and could have damaged their search for Madeleine.

'Freedom of speech should not outweigh the rights of our family, our children, the right for a proper, reasonable and fair search,' she said. 'Freedom of speech should not include distortion of the truth, lies, fabrication and slander.' 

The McCanns took legal action against Mr Amaral after his book, Maddie: The Truth of the Lie, claimed that Madeleine died in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007 and that they faked her abduction. They deny the accusations and have been cleared by the Portuguese. (Note: Untrue - the case is shelved pending further evidence.  They have not been "cleared".)

Yesterday, Mr Amaral, 49, who was sacked from the investigation, threatened to counter-sue the couple for the suffering they had caused to his family.

He told a Portuguese newspaper:

'I owe nothing to them [the McCanns]. They're only here to show off, to keep the image they have in England. I will sue them for what they did to my family.

Continue Reading... Labels: A Verdade da Mentira, DISGRACED, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Policia Judiciaria, The Truth of the Lie, WikiLeaks

Madeleine Mccann - Eddie & Keela dogs

Continue Reading...

Full DNA Match in McCann's Car

Police 'Found Full DNA Match' In McCanns' Car 

Police have found a full DNA match which links Madeleine McCann's body to a hire car rented by her parents five weeks after she went missing.

Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt has the latest. 
Yes, I know, the video has been "removed by the user".  If anyone has a back-up copy, please let me know and I will link to it.  The FACT remains, this video  WAS aired.

Continue Reading... Labels: Forensic Science Services

Amaral to train with former enemy

Amaral to train with former “enemy”
23 November 2009
24Horas
by Rute Coelho
(Joana Morais Blog, posted/translated by "astro")

João Grade

Gonçalo Amaral’s patron was Leonor Cipriano’s defender until the trial of five PJ inspectors over torture on Joana’s mother. Now they are great friends

Life’s irony: Gonçalo Amaral, who in court helped to condemn Joana’s mother over her daughter’s death, is going to train, from January onwards, at the Portimão office of João Grade dos Santos, Leonor Cipriano’s first lawyer.

On the other hand, João Grade stopped defending Leonor – who exchanged him for lawyer Marcos Aragão Correia – on the eve of the trial of the five PJ inspectors and former inspectors that stood accused by the Public Ministry of torture over Joana’s mother.

“Since the first moment of the Joana case, I never forgot that I was merely a lawyer playing my role, and Amaral was a policeman”, João Grade dos Santos told 24horas.

“Gonçalo contacted me to become his patron during the training, which is due to start in January. Given the fact that he resides in Portimão and I have an office there, I think he chose me for a practical reason”, he explains. “That would be the reason, otherwise he would have proposed to practise at the office of his lawyer, António Cabrita [head of the Faro District division of the Lawyer’s Order], with whom he has an excellent relationship”, the lawyer explains.

It’s been months since João Grade dos Santos and Gonçalo Amaral started regular contact. “We speak very often”, the patron says about the retired inspector. João Grade even believes that the former inspector who led the Joana case investigation “may have been the victim of an injustice in the process over torture against Leonor Cipriano”.

Gonçalo Amaral ended up being condemned, on the 22nd of May this year, to a penalty of one year and six months in prison, suspended for a similar period, over the crime of false deposition. He was acquitted of the crime of omission of denunciation. The former coordinator in the Joana case investigation has appealed the sentence.

“He knows more than a 20-year-old trainee”

According to the Laywers’ Order’s rules, the training starts at the Lawyers’ Order itself, for six months, and only then can the candidate start his practical experience at a lawyers’ office. It is always the candidate who must find a patron. The full training period lasts almost three years. Then, one still has to pass the Order’s exams to be accepted as a lawyer.

João Grade dos Santos believes in his new trainee’s abilities. “My instinct tells me that Gonçalo is going to be very good. He has a refined smell and a brilliant career at the Polícia Judiciária: he become a coordinator during the time when inspectors were still called agents”, he praises, considering that “with his experience, he already knows a lot more than a trainee in his early twenties”.

Criminal investigation gives experience. “I have no doubts that he will be very good in the penal law area”, he says. As for other areas, like civil or family law, the future “master” of pupil Amaral bets on the student’s ability to learn: “I will explain to him how a process works. He won’t know how to carry out a divorce or an evacuation action at the first attempt, but I believe he will learn quickly”. The patron and the trainee are from the same generation. João Grade dos Santos is aged 51, Amaral is 50.

He even gave him the book

Gonçalo Amaral offered his patron a copy of his book about the Maddie case, “The truth about the lie”. “I read his book and I was convinced, as I had been before, anyway, that it was not an abduction. But the book does not defame the McCanns, Gonçalo Amaral does not express his opinion in it, but an investigation thesis”, says João Grade. Long before they became friends, the lawyer refused to cooperate with Spanish detective agency Método 3, which, according to a special programme on SIC on the 12th of February, wanted to count on his help in the investigation due to the Amaral factor, which was common to the Maddie and Joana cases. Grade refused. Método 3 contacted Marcos Aragão Correia, who accepted.

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, João Grade, Leonor Cipriano, Marcos Aragao Correia

Jurors waiting for 16 thousand euros

Jurors waiting for 16 thousand euros
23 October 2009
ionline
Thanks to Astro for translation
The Faro Court decision that condemned Gonçalo Amaral can only move into appeal after the members of the jury are paid

The eight jurors that were present during the process of Leonor Cipriano against Polícia Judiciária (PJ) agents have not been paid by the Court of Faro, which is delaying the appeals that were filed by the lawyers at the Appeals Court. An amount that exceeds 16 thousand euro has not been paid and is standing in the way of a decision from the Appeals Court, given that the appeals concerning applied sentences and acquittals cannot move from the first instance into the Appeals Court unless the eight members of the jury are paid. The law does not foresee any legal deadline for appeals to reach the Appeals Court.

Five appeals are at issue. One from the lawyer that represents former PJ inspector Gonçalo Amaral, who did not conform over the condemnation for false deposition. One from the representative of Leonor Cipriano, who did not agree with the acquittal of Leonel Marques, Paulo Cristóvão and Paulo Marques Bom. And a third appeal that was written by the lawyers who represent one of the Judiciária agents, António Cardoso, condemned over document forgery.

These three appeals are joined by two that were filed prior to the sentence and for which the PJ agents' lawyers are responsible. One of the requests focuses on the Lawyers' Order being made an assistant in the process – which the agent's defence considers not to be one of the Orders' purposes and says is at odds with its statutes. And the second one was filed because the defence considers it had a right to hear a statement from Marinho Pinto, the head of the Lawyers' Order, which was refused because he was an assistant in the process, The defence called Marinho Pinto (given that as a journalist he published Leonor Cipriano's photos in the "Expresso" newspaper) as a witness, but due to the fact that he made himself an assistant, the judge rejected his witness statement.

This is a total of five appeals that wait for delivery at the Appeals Court in Évora, in order to be evaluated. According to judicial sources that were contacted by i, the case may drag on for some time, given that the Judicial Court of Faro may not have enough financial resources for this year, in order to pay over 16 thousand euro that the jury is owed.

According to the Jurors' Statute, "after the sentence is read in the first instance, compensation is attributed based on every day that the function was effectively exercised". This means that each one of the jurors – four effectives and four substitutes – receives one account unit (102 euro) for each day of work. There were approximately 16 court sessions, three meetings of the jurors with the judges and one interview during selection phase, which sums 20 days of pay for each juror.

In this process, in which Leonor Cipriano accused the Judiciária inspectors of torture, it was the defence that requested a jury trial, although the use of jurors is uncommon in Portugal. According to statements made at that time, the defence lawyers wanted "for the people to judge the police agents".

Less serious cases are tried by a judge.
More serious cases are tried by three judges, or exceptionally, by a jury.

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leonor Cipriano, Marcos Aragao Correia, Paulo Pereira Cristóvão

Marcos Aragão Correia interrupted Amaral's 50th Birthday Party

Leonor Cipriano's lawyer interrupted the birthday party of Gonçalo Amaral
Paul Marcellin
Correio da Manhã
05 October 2009
[For Translation and Comments - See Joana Morais Blog]

Marcos Aragão Correia

Marcos Aragão Correia

• attorney representing Leonor Cipriano
  
  
• interrupted Amaral's birthday party at Portimão restaurant
   
• made obscene gesture to party guests toasting Amaral after fireworks
  
  
• spun tires, returned minutes later with PSP patrol
   
• Gonçalo Amaral and Paulo Pereira Cristóvão spoke to PSP officers and Correia fled running
   

FULL TEXT:

Continue Reading... Labels: A Verdade da Mentira, Cipriano case, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, João Grade, Leonor Cipriano, Marcos Aragao Correia, Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, Policia Judiciaria, The English Gag, The Truth of the Lie

Why Gerry and Kate will never give up hope

Why Gerry and Kate will never give up hope
13 September 2009
The Sunday Life

Marcos Aragão Correia

Marcos Aragão Correia

• Marcos Correia
• human rights lawyer
• relocated from Madeira to investigate Madeleine's case
• convinced Madeleine in Algarve
• said had information Madeleine murdered and body dumped in reservoir
• told McCanns of suspicions but they decided not to back his search

FULL TEXT:

Continue Reading... Labels: Marcos Aragao Correia, Sunday Life

A single sentence in cases of assaults in PJ

A single sentence in cases of assaults in PJ
Lusa
14 Julho 2009
(Original in Portuguese)


Four cases of alleged assaults by officers of the Polícia Judiciária of prisoners came to court, but only one within the Joana case resulted in conviction.

The first trial of inspectors came in 2000 when Chief Inspector José Abrantes and three other inspectors of the PJ in Lisbon were accused of crimes offense of assault and kidnapping of a qualified man referred to as a potential informant in the process of Gang da Passarelle.

Rui Nuno Marques accused the four inspectors of the PJ (that he was) kidnapped and transported to the facilities of the Judiciária, where he said he was assaulted with the intention of revealing information for the investigation of the case.

The court found as proven assaults on the premises of the PJ without, however, has found its authorship, so José Abrantes and three other officers were acquitted.

In September 2004, after the disappearance of an eight-year-old (Joana Cipriano), the mother, Leonor Cipriano, was questioned at the premises of the PJ in Faro, where she said the inspectors tortured her to obtain a confession of the responsibility for her daughter's death, along with her brother, João Cipriano.

Five current and former PJ inspectors were brought to trial by jury, with the Ordem dos Advogados (OA) (Bar Association) acting as assistant prosecutor in the proceedings for the first time in the history of Portuguese justice .

While Faro court has given as proven torture of Leonor Cipriano, could not prove who inflicted the injuries and how, so that Leonel Marques, Paulo Pereira Cristovão and Paulo Marques Bom were acquitted.

For his part, Gonçalo Amaral was acquitted of the crime of failure to report, but the panel of judges chaired by Henrique Pavão sentenced the former PJ inspector to one year in prison suspended for the same period for the crime of false testimony.

The fifth inspector on trial, António Cardoso, was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for the same period for the crime of forgery of a document.

In 2007, an inspector of the Porto PJ, Machial Pinto, had to attend trial session, after being accused of punching, during the interrogation, a man suspected of killing the woman.

The PJ's agent has refuted the allegations and stressed in court that the suspect, assisted at the Hospital de São João Porto, where he remained for 45 minutes due to a "head injury unspecified", "shot up to an inspector," by who was forced to intervene in support of their colleague and forced to subdue him "down."

The court did not finally condemn the Porto PJ inspector.

The Ferroviário Case also refers to 2007, with three PJ inspectors to be pronounced for alleged assaults on a man suspected of theft, with the postponement of the first session in the Tribunal Criminal de Lisboa (Criminal Court of Lisbon.)

The audience, still no date set, came to be scheduled for the same time the trial started of current and former inspectors of the PJ in the media Joana Case.

Because of the trial on the torture of Leonor Cipriano who complained, mother of missing girl in the Algarve in September 2004, the Government created a manual of detention conditions in PJ, so that the rights of detainees are respected.

Contacted by Lusa news agency, António Pragal Colaç ASFIC attorney (Associação Sindical dos Funcionários de Investigação Criminal da Polícia Judiciária) (Union Association of Criminal Investigation Staff of the Judicial Police), criticized the court for judging the cases of attacks attributed to PJ inspectors.

"The courts were in Portugal to worry about chasing the thieves and not the police," he said, showing "concern" and "amazed" by the fact that investigators pursue criminal conviction for acts of violence against detainees.

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Leonel Marques, Paulo Marques Bom, Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, Policia Judiciaria

Money Bytes: Marcos Aragão Correia

Money Bytes:
Marcos Aragão Correia, Public Ministry, Portuguese Bar Association versus Gonçalo Amaral
2 July 2009
Joana Morais

Marcos Aragão Correia

Legal Complaints

• Marcos Aragão Corrreia
• Leonor Cipriano's psychic lawyer
• filed 2 complaints in October 2008
• requested 500.000 Euros as compensation from Gonçalo Amaral over Amaral's request that Correia be "interned" (sent to psychiatric hospital)
• requested 500.000 Euros as compensation from Gonçalo Amaral to compensate Leandro da Silva (suspected of raping Joana Cipriano) over "torture, defamation and false statements" during investigation into Joana's disappearance.
• complaints quickly advanced by Public Ministry
• leaked documents and photos to which had access as lawyer

• Quote: ''Target was hit, Gonçalo Amaral was convicted''

• Gonçalo Amaral
• filed criminal complaint against Marcos Aragão Correia for defamation, libel and slander in April 2008
• complaint apparently stalled at Public Ministry

FULL TEXT:

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leandro Silva, Leonor Cipriano, Libel case, Marcos Aragao Correia, Metodo3

Maddie cop rap

Maddie cop rap
2 July 2009
The Sun

Leandro Silva and Leonor Cipriano

The disgraced ex-boss of the Madeleine McCann probe has been charged with torturing a witness in another missing child case.

Goncalo Amaral, 49, is accused of punching and slapping Leandro Silva - who wants £430,000 compensation - during the 2004 hunt for Joana Cipriano, eight.

Mum Leonor, 36, girlfriend of Leandro, was jailed for killing the girl in Figueira, Portugal, just miles from Praia da Luz where Maddie disappeared.

Continue Reading... Labels: Cipriano case, DISGRACED, Goncalo Amaral, Gonçalo Amaral, Joao Cipriano, Leandro Silva, Leonor Cipriano, Marcos Aragao Correia, The Sun