War of words but no trace of Madeleine five months on

Oct 3, 2007, 12:21 GMT

Five months after British toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared without trace, her case has become bogged down in a web of accusations, speculation and mistrust highlighted by the dismissal in Portugal of chief investigator Goncalo Amaral. © Solarpix / PR Photos

London/Lisbon - Five months after British toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared without trace, her case has become bogged down in a web of accusations, speculation and mistrust highlighted by the dismissal in Portugal of chief investigator Goncalo Amaral.

The suave 48-year-old inspector was unceremoniously dismissed by his superiors Tuesday after openly attacking the girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who have been named suspects by the Portuguese police.

Some of Amaral's colleagues criticized him over police sources' repeated leaks to the press, but others saw him as a 'scapegoat' for British critics making unreasonable demands on Portuguese police.

In Britain, the sacking of Amaral was greeted with barely- concealed relief. The chief investigator, sporting a moustache and invariably shown behind dark sunglasses, had been a thorn in the flesh of the British media from the start.

'His sweaty, corpulent figure is a familiar sight in the restaurants and cafes around police headquarters,' the Daily Mail said Wednesday.

'His departure was met with relief by those close to the investigation,' the Mail maintained.

Just a few days earlier, a British tabloid claimed that Amaral had ignored most of the 252 possible sightings and tip-offs in the case.

British police, which has refused to comment on the sacking, has said it will continue cooperating with Portuguese investigators. It was hoped that the departure of Amaral would give the investigations 'fresh impetus.'

British newspapers have claimed recently that the Portuguese investigations were stalled because the authorities there 'refused to consider any evidence which does not fit theories implicating the McCanns.'

Colourful Amaral had become one of the key characters in an increasingly irrational story drawing on a confusing mixture of emotional family issues, nationalist feelings and money-driven media speculation.

Madeleine went missing from her parents' holiday apartment in the southern Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, exactly five months to the day Wednesday.

Other children went missing on the Iberian Peninsula at around the same time, and the only unusual feature of the Madeleine case was, that the four-year-old allegedly disappeared from her bed while her parents were dining in a nearby restaurant.

But the McCann, both doctors from Britain, mounted a huge media operation around their daughter's disappearance, throwing Portuguese police into the international spotlight.

Portuguese reports have disputed British claims of a slow-moving investigation, saying some of the investigators have not even taken holidays, while their work has been slowed down by hundreds of false leads.

The McCanns are well-to-do northern Europeans accusing the police force of a poorer southern country of a sloppy investigation, analysts point out in Portugal. Nationalist feelings have inevitably come into play.

British criticism of Portuguese police prompted a counter-attack, leading to frequent leaks of the ongoing investigation to the media and an aggressive defence of the hypothesis that the McCanns had accidentally killed their daughter.

Amaral therefore undoubtedly spoke for many of his colleagues when accusing the McCanns of deliberately confusing investigators with constant false information and British police of 'only investigating what suits the couple.'

Police chief Alipio Ribeiro instantly dismissed Amaral for 'obvious reasons,' while Justice Minister Alberto Costa rushed to praise the good cooperation between British and Portuguese police.

But many felt that Amaral had become a 'scapegoat,' as an anonymous police source was quoted as saying.

Amaral's dismissal was a good thing, because it 'protected' him from constant British 'attacks,' said Carlos Anjos, president of the police trade union Asfic.

'He was accused of drinking, of working only four hours a day, of being a suspect in torture cases, and what not,' Anjos fumed.

Reports have pointed out that Amaral is suspected of torture in the case of another missing girl, whose mother was convicted after confessing to killing her in 2004.

Amaral and several other police officers are accused by prosecutors of obtaining the confession through torture.

Many ordinary Portuguese, however, criticize police not over its handling of the Madeleine investigation, but over focusing on just one blonde British girl while dozens of Portuguese children remain missing.

'British tourists are an important source of income for Portugal,' observes a Latin American journalist based in Lisbon. 'That is one of the reasons why this case has ballooned out of proportion.'