Madeleine case: Her parents’ appeal against Portuguese justice rejected

The European Court of Human Rights rejected today her recourse of her parents Madeline McCann against the decision of the Portuguese Supreme Court to dismiss their action against ex policemanwho implicated them in their daughter’s disappearance.

Kate and Jerry McCann they had filed a defamation suit against him Gonzalo Amaral, who had led the search for Madeleine in 2007, because in a book which he wrote under the title “The Truth of Lies”, hinted that the girl’s parents were involved in her disappearance.

The McCanns had filed a lawsuit against him. In 2015 a Portuguese court vindicated them by ordering Amaral to pay them €500,000 in damages, but two years later the decision was overturned by Portugal’s Supreme Court.

The parents then appealed to the European Court of Justice arguing that their right to a fair trial, the right to respect for private and family life and the right to freedom of expression were not upheld by Portugal.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Portuguese court fulfilled its obligation to protect the rights of the Makans and that their arguments regarding the presumption of innocence were unfounded.

“Even if we assume that the name of the plaintiffs is tarnished, this did not happen because of the reference in the author’s book, but rather as a result of the suspicions leveled against them» ruled the European Court.

As APE-MPE remindsMadeleine was three years old when, on May 3, 2007, she disappeared in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luzwhere her family had gone on vacation.

Amaral released his book three days after Portugal’s attorney general decided to end the search for the little girl in 2008. He later took part in a documentary for Portuguese television.

In April, officials in Faro, Portugal they named 44-year-old German Christian Brickner, who has been convicted of rape, as the official suspect.

German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was presumed dead and that Brickner was likely responsible for her disappearance. However, British officers continue to treat the case as a disappearance.