Interview de Gonçalo
Amaral
Sábado magazine –
27.04.2017
Traduit par Montclair
Return of the Inspector
to the crime scene.
Years after the
investigation which ended his career, Gonçalo Amaral explains how
Maddie’s body could have disappeared: cremated with that of a
British citizen
He was having dinner with
a friend, after a day’s work, when near midnight 3 May 2007, he
received a phone call which would influence the years to come. He
gave instructions over the phone, went to the night squad and then
went home. The inspector at the time couldn’t know then that he was
to becomes a “worthless policeman”, pledged to a line of
investigation dedicated to the presumption of guilt of a couple of
English doctors, and he will be called countless times “drunk”,
“womanising” and “sleazy” in the British press and on the
internet.
"Ten years is a life. A lawsuit with a request for € 1.250.000,00 compensation is very heavy burden at all levels. The economic and financial strangulation was brutal. Abruptly abandoning a successful career as a criminal investigator to defend my name and professional honour as well as of those who worked with me, is painful and irreparable.
said Gonçalo Amaral, 57 years old, almost
a decade after that telephone call, which informed him of the
disappearance of en English child from a tourist complex in Praia da
Luz, 7 kilometres from Lagoa, in the Algarve. Everything that could
go wrong, went wrong. The child was Madeleine McCann.
While Gonçalo Amaral
went home, in apartment 5A of Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, the GNR
“who took almost an hour to get to the place because of road works”
(il leur a fallu 20 minutes pour venir de Odiáxere) were already there, as well as the people in the McCann group – 9
in total plus 7 (8) children – and a PJ team. Signs of that confusing
night, in which the mother screamed in the street about 22h00, “we
let her down” and which there are contradictions between the
friends as to the established timeline of the visits to the minors in
the apartments, while they dined and drank 50 meters away, are two: a
palm print of a man on the window (???), which would be discovered as that
of an element of the scientific police, and Kate’s finger prints
on the window in the children’s bedroom, where the parents would
insist that the abductor came in. But the lowered shutter showed no
sign of being forced.
In the kitchen sink there
were glasses of chocolate milk, which were never analysed, and which
could have been used to prove the use of medication (info de Ricardo Paiva à travers Astro) – which would
have corroborated the hypothesis of accidental death and concealment
of a body defended by the main coordinator of the investigation.
En quoi l'usage d'un tranquilisant aurait-il corroboré l'hypothèse d'une mort accidentelle ? Les médecins ne sont pas fous au point de sédater fortement leurs enfants afin de dîner tranquillement avec des gens qui n'étaient même pas leurs amis.
In
the family’s camera there were no photos of that night. It would be
impossible to know what each English person was wearing. Also, there
were no CCTV: in the complex, in the surrounding streets, petrol
stations, ATMs and pharmacies.
La vidéo surveillance est interdite au Portugal, sauf dans l'espace privé, les ATM et quelques lieux à risque.
The only camera which could have
registered what the Smiths will say later that they saw, witness
considered important for the coordinator at the time, was ignored by
the PJ and when it was identified the images were no longer
available.
Cette caméra n'était pas et n'est toujours pas orientée vers la rua da escola primaria, comme le requiert la loi.
The Irish family had
already returned home when, at the beginning of October 9 of September, the McCanns
having already been made arguidos, returned to the UK and were
captured by the TV cameras in Leicestershire. The head of the Smith
family recognised the photo of Gerry McCann holding one of the twins
in his arms as the man he saw the night of 2007.
Il n'a pas reconnu de photos, lui et sa femme étaient en train de regarder les nouvelles à la TV, ont vu Gerald MC descendre de l'avions avec son fils lourdement endormi sur l'épaule et soudain ont cru reconnaître l'allure du porteur d'enfant croisé à PDL la nuit du 3/4 mai.
The Irish family
never returned to Portugal – “I don’t even know if they are
still alive” – Gonçalo Amaral said as he went up the Rua da
Escola Primária where the family is supposed to have come across
Maddie’s father in the night of 3 May 2007 with his daughter in his
arms.
Cette famille est probablement revenue à PDL, y ayant un appartement où ils allaient plusieurs fois par an.
The car boot
That night the twins kept
sleeping, with the police, many witnesses and Ocean Club workers in
the 5A apartment. They were taken still sleeping to another apartment
where, later, Fiona Payne would say that she saw Kate McCann with her
hand under the nose and on the mouth of the children as if to see if
they were still breathing. The lead of Capol, which the mother
admitted giving to the children to get them to sleep never went
anywhere.
Kate n'a jamais admis cela. Le Capol est un antihistaminique, pas un sédatif.
In August, the course of
the investigation changed to preview the possible death of the child,
with suspicion falling on the parents. The sudden change was based on
biological traces gathered in the car rented by the McCanns in May. 3 semaines après la disparition. A
fact that Gonçalo Amaral ignored because the initial line of
investigation was that of an abduction.
In front of the
apartment, the ex-inspector points to the places where the British
police dogs found cadaver odour, in the small garden which leads to
the interior of the apartment, in the back of the tourist complex
above the swimming pool and restaurant where the group of the English
dined every night, while they were there.
L'immeuble dans lequel habitaient les MC ne faisait pas partie du complexe touristique, il en était séparé par deux murs (dont le haut mur d'enceinte du complexe) et une large allée publique.
And also in the interior of
the house, behind the sofa. “In the car, where, in August, the
gathering of traces was carried out with the help of the dogs, the
father’s blood was found on the car key and in the boot of the car
body fluids as if they had drained from above the tire well as well
as hairs which the laboratory says are the same colour as Madeleine
McCann’s hair. But these traces were devaluated by the English
laboratory which the Portuguese police chose – “in order to not
accuse us of falsifying the results”, said Amaral.
Les Anglais ont déclaré que les analyses n'étaient pas concluantes. Il faut songer que les parents et enfants MC avaient un patrimoine génétique en commun.
In October, in
declarations to Diário de Notícias, Gonçalo Amaral criticised the
British police. He was dismissed and taken off the case by the
national head of the PJ. The Smith family was to come to Portugal.
Who told a journalist that the British police should worry about what was agreed in Portugal, which is to follow the line of investigation of the responsibility of the parents in the disappearance of their daughter, was me. After that, what Dr. Alípio Ribeiro said, the decision to take me off the case, in Portimão, is a consequence of that. But it also opened the door to the shelving of the case and that is what happened.
he tells us 10 years later.
L'erreur majeure de Gonçalo avait été commise fin mai 2007. Il avait fait venir trois membres de la famille Smith dans l'espoir qu'il identifierait Smithman comme étant RM. Il n'en fut rien et, comme la ligne de temps établie par les TP9 fournissait à ceux-ci un alibi, GA négligea le signalement des Smiths.
This week, Pedro Carmo,
vice director of the PJ, said that the investigation is still being
carried out, now under the authority of a team in Porto. “We have
never had a case like this, nor afterwards.” A source of the Public
Ministry prefers to remember that some of the strange things about
this case is the existence of “two parallel investigations” and
the “submission to the United Kingdom”. Il est sûr que sans l'enquête de SY, le MP n'aurait pas rouvert le dossier MC.
Well founded suspicions
The decision of 31
December January 2017 by the Supreme Court, confirmed avec la réponse en mars à la réclamation, was the confirmation of the Appeal Court decision
which overturned the decision which forced Gonçalo Amaral to
compensate the couple for damages caused by the publication of
“Maddie: The Truth of the Lie”. Several British newspapers
lesquels ? considered the decision “shameful”, for saying that there were
“well founded suspicions” in the ex-PJ coordinator’s theory.
For Gonçalo Amaral this is the “confirmation of a whole line of
investigation”, shown in the book which he published in July 2008
and which led him to hell.
Maddie: A Verdade da
Mentira, which never reached the British market, was translated in
several countries and sold 170 thousand examples in Portugal. In
2009, the Civil Court of Lisbon ordered the freezing of all profits
obtained from the book in the first case brought by the McCanns, who
demanded compensation of 1.2 million euro's. Author’s copyrights
and Amaral’s share in the company he created after he left the PJ,
a third of his salary as director and even the Jaguar he bought it
May in the name of Gonçalo Amaral Unipessoal, Lda., which never was
able to offer “services of professional advice in the area of
criminal investigation” were all frozen.
Near the Luz Church,
where the parents were seen many times and photographed, Amaral
confessed that “he never forgot the disappeared child and there are
always people giving him information about the case”. This is where
the coordinator who was also on the “Joana case”, disappearance
in 2004 of a child, in which the mother and uncle were convicted of
murder, holds on to the explanation of a perfect crime.
“One night (December
2007?) three figures were seen entering the church with a bag,
through the side door, when there is a body of a lady from the UK
inside and which was then sent to be cremated in Ferreira do
Alentejo. It is possible that the child’s body was in the urn”,
he said.
Between the 5A apartment,
where the McCann family spent their holidays, and the Anglican
church, Gonçalo Amaral never says the diminutive of the disappeared
child’s name, Maddie, her baptismal name, nor the name of the
child’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann. For him, a decade after the
facts, they are only “the missing child” and “the couple”.
The former inspector
says that the PJ went along with Scotland Yard and there was
servility on the part of the Public Ministry and the government in
relation to the British.
Fernanda Cachão and
Mónica Palma
There was too much
diplomacy
Outside of the
judicial case, Gonçalo Amaral states that the McCanns took away any
possibility he had of a professional life.
Q : Is there a political
balance to make of this case?
GA : There is and it is
very strong. Please note I never returned to the Polícia Judiciária
(PJ) and the couple already. The head of the PJ and the magistrate
are doing what is politically correct. In the UK and here the police
headquarters went in step with Scotland Yard. They don’t
investigate anything which could compromise the parents or the
friends. It is a mistake. Furthermore, there cannot be parallel
channels of investigation, because it is not normal that the
ambassador of a foreign country comes to a scene to put pressure so
that “it has to be fast”. After this meeting, the head of the PJ
read a statement saying that they were looking for an abductor with
which I and others did not agree. If the ambassador and even the
consul had not shown up, the investigation would have been directed
to what is normal, which is suspecting those who have the
responsibility of the custody of the child. There was too much
diplomacy.
Q : As the coordinator
didn’t you have a word to say?
GA : I and other
colleagues said what we had to say. We were told that that was the
direction and afterwards we would go back to the other.
Q : Who?
GA : My superior at the
time. Guilhermino Encarnaçao.
Q : How is it that the
visit of the ambassador intimidates or orientates in this way an
investigation?
GA : By the servility we
have in relation to the English. The Judiciary, the Public Ministry
and the government felt intimated by the UK. The mistake was the
announcement speaking of an abduction.
Q : Did Maddie’s
parents receive special treatment?
GA : In what I call my
naiveness, I note the fact that they belonged to the English upper
middle class and the British don’t like it when their doctors make
a mess abroad and that they are convicted for it.
Q : Ten years later, what
self-criticism have you done?
GA : I should never have
retired from the PJ. I should have – and because the police never
defended me or my colleagues from the insults made about us –
written and published the book as a member of the PJ. I should never
have allowed that we were the target of so much pressure. When the
couple left, the British police who were here to cooperate and help
also left. The sensation we had was that the British police were only
here to protect the couple. We were too sincere and then they took
advantage. For example, we sent forensic samples to the English
laboratory, when the tests could have been done by a Portuguese one,
so that we would not be accused of manipulating the final results. We
were naïve and too diplomatic.
Q : Is this a
particularly distressful case for you?
GA : The case in itself
no. The case against me also no. The distress came from what they did
to me outside of the case. The violation of my private life, the
destabilisation of the person, the insults, the defamation and
destroying any possibilities of a professional activity that I would
like to do. I have been prevented from doing so. Things were not just
done inside case, a lot was done outside of it.
Q : Have you turned your
back on the former heads of the PJ?
GA : No, I’m just
making a criticism and I have the right to do so. You don’t throw
away a higher ranking officer just to protect a couple suspected, at
the least, of neglecting their children which lead to the
disappearance. It was almost a lack respect to take that decision
(that it was an abduction) and make it public. They did not look at
the case objectively. If the investigation ever does come to an end
and it is proven that the parents had nothing to do with it, then
that is fine.
Madeleine milestone: Amaral agrees “some things we did weren’t right”
Natasha Donn - Portugal Resident - 30.04.2017
As mainstream media in the UK continues to churn out thinly-disguised ‘rehash stories’ on the world’s most famous missing person, here in Portugal the media circus has been much more demure as we approach the date on which exactly 10 years ago three-year-old Madeleine McCann simply vanished. No wild exclusives pointing to new “prime suspects” or landmark television events, rather a backward view at a case that may have been set up from the very beginning to remain an eternal mystery.
Peut-être pas monté de toutes pièces pour se figer en éternel mystère, mais il est sûr qu'un certain scénario, inventé pour échapper aux reproches, s'est développé en une rumeur tenace enveloppée de mystère et échappant à tout contrôle.
Keeping an incredibly low profile since his double victory at the Supreme Court in the tortuous legal battle with Kate and Gerry McCann, former PJ coordinator Gonçalo Amaral has finally given interviews to journalists working for the Cofina group, which publishes Sábado weekly magazine, and ‘people’s daily’ Correio da Manha.
Over various pages in both Sábado and CM, Amaral was given time to revisit his ‘politically incorrect’ theories, reasons for coming to them and suggest other lesser known ‘mistakes’ - like the failure to check CCTV cameras on the road in which an Irish family said they saw a man carrying a child in pyjamas down towards the sea. By the time investigators realised the sighting might be crucial, the CCTV images had been recorded over.
Madeleine milestone: Amaral agrees “some things we did weren’t right”
Natasha Donn - Portugal Resident - 30.04.2017
As mainstream media in the UK continues to churn out thinly-disguised ‘rehash stories’ on the world’s most famous missing person, here in Portugal the media circus has been much more demure as we approach the date on which exactly 10 years ago three-year-old Madeleine McCann simply vanished. No wild exclusives pointing to new “prime suspects” or landmark television events, rather a backward view at a case that may have been set up from the very beginning to remain an eternal mystery.
Peut-être pas monté de toutes pièces pour se figer en éternel mystère, mais il est sûr qu'un certain scénario, inventé pour échapper aux reproches, s'est développé en une rumeur tenace enveloppée de mystère et échappant à tout contrôle.
Keeping an incredibly low profile since his double victory at the Supreme Court in the tortuous legal battle with Kate and Gerry McCann, former PJ coordinator Gonçalo Amaral has finally given interviews to journalists working for the Cofina group, which publishes Sábado weekly magazine, and ‘people’s daily’ Correio da Manha.
Ceux qui l'ont soutenu mentalement et financièrement, qui lui ont envoyé maints messages de félicitations quand le STJ a confirmé l'arrêt de la cour d'appel lui donnant raison, n'ont même pas eu droit à une parole venant de lui.
And, for reasons that have nothing to do with the insults regularly thrown at him by British tabloids, the quiet-spoken, reserved 57-year-old agrees there were some things that from the outset Portuguese police did not do right.
And, for reasons that have nothing to do with the insults regularly thrown at him by British tabloids, the quiet-spoken, reserved 57-year-old agrees there were some things that from the outset Portuguese police did not do right.
GA ne répond pas aux insultes, non plus..
“I should not have allowed us to be put under pressure”, he told CM’s Sunday Magazine, adding that when the McCann family finally left Praia da Luz in September 2007, the British police that had come over to assist the Portuguese investigation also left - leaving the “sensation that they were only here to protect the couple”. Amaral said that another mistake came in the way “the group of Brits” now known as the Tapas 7 was included in on meetings with the PJ, “to know what was going on”.
“I should not have allowed us to be put under pressure”, he told CM’s Sunday Magazine, adding that when the McCann family finally left Praia da Luz in September 2007, the British police that had come over to assist the Portuguese investigation also left - leaving the “sensation that they were only here to protect the couple”. Amaral said that another mistake came in the way “the group of Brits” now known as the Tapas 7 was included in on meetings with the PJ, “to know what was going on”.
C'est faux, les seuls à assister aux réunions "au sommet" pour faire le point étaient les MC.
“I went to one of the first meetings and decided that I would never do that again”, he explained. “In normal conditions, in an investigation like this one, they would have been straight away considered suspects”. Instead, the way the group was brought into developments “prejudiced the investigation”, he said.
“There is an issue that the Portuguese police have to start adopting in these (kind of) cases”, Amaral added.
“I went to one of the first meetings and decided that I would never do that again”, he explained. “In normal conditions, in an investigation like this one, they would have been straight away considered suspects”. Instead, the way the group was brought into developments “prejudiced the investigation”, he said.
“There is an issue that the Portuguese police have to start adopting in these (kind of) cases”, Amaral added.
Instead of leading a question and answer interrogation in which the person (being questioned) is relaxed, waiting for the question to answer, it would be better if they adopted the way of the FBI: “Here is a pen and paper, and you are going to write down, in your own time and words, everything that you did, where you went, who you were with, etc., from the moment you got up to the moment the day ended.The current form of interrogation used by Portuguese police “could lead people, and indicate where we (the police) want to go”, he explained.
Over various pages in both Sábado and CM, Amaral was given time to revisit his ‘politically incorrect’ theories, reasons for coming to them and suggest other lesser known ‘mistakes’ - like the failure to check CCTV cameras on the road in which an Irish family said they saw a man carrying a child in pyjamas down towards the sea. By the time investigators realised the sighting might be crucial, the CCTV images had been recorded over.
Ces caméras, à l'époque et aujourd'hui encore, sont pointées vers l'entrée de la résidence, pas vers la rue, car cela est interdit au Portugal. Pourquoi divulguer des mythes ?
The “Smith sighting” as it has become known could be one of the most crucial moments in the evening of May 3 before Madeleine was reported missing - yet the family never returned to Portugal to make formal statements because, in October 2007 “Amaral was removed from the case after talking to Diário de Notícias”, explains Sábado.
The “Smith sighting” as it has become known could be one of the most crucial moments in the evening of May 3 before Madeleine was reported missing - yet the family never returned to Portugal to make formal statements because, in October 2007 “Amaral was removed from the case after talking to Diário de Notícias”, explains Sábado.
Trois membres de cette famille revinrent en mai 2007, à la demande de la PJ car GA espérait que Smithman était Robert M. Il n'était pas RM, donc GA a cessé de s'intéresser à lui, sous le prétexte qu'aucun membre des TP9 ne pouvait être Smithman. Pourquoi ? Parce que la ligne de temps excluait cette possibilité. Qui avait établi la ligne de temps ? Les TP9 !
And here, Amaral says came another major mistake : "I should never have retired from the PJ”, he told interviewers, stressing that instead he should have “written and published the book” (Maddie: The Truth of the Lie, which led to years of “brutal” litigation with Madeleine’s parents) as a member of the PJ Judicial Police.
And here, Amaral says came another major mistake : "I should never have retired from the PJ”, he told interviewers, stressing that instead he should have “written and published the book” (Maddie: The Truth of the Lie, which led to years of “brutal” litigation with Madeleine’s parents) as a member of the PJ Judicial Police.
Comme commissaire, il aurait dû écrire un livre qui répétait, de manière plus agréable à lire, ce qu'il y avait dans le dossier de police ?
“We were just too honest”, Amaral concluded. “And we paid for it as a result.
“We were just too honest”, Amaral concluded. “And we paid for it as a result.
Pourquoi "nous" ? "Nous" de majesté ? L'argument de la trop grande honnêté a rarement l'effet convoité.
“For example, we sent forensic material to a British laboratory, when the testing could have been done at a Portuguese laboratory, so that we would not be accused of manipulation in the final result. Qui au juste a eu cette idée saugrenue ? “We were naive and too diplomatic”, he said - adding that in his opinion, the ‘abduction theory’ adopted within days of Madeleine’s disappearance is a “lack of respect” to what should have been an “objective investigation”.
“For example, we sent forensic material to a British laboratory, when the testing could have been done at a Portuguese laboratory, so that we would not be accused of manipulation in the final result. Qui au juste a eu cette idée saugrenue ? “We were naive and too diplomatic”, he said - adding that in his opinion, the ‘abduction theory’ adopted within days of Madeleine’s disappearance is a “lack of respect” to what should have been an “objective investigation”.
GA, son image dans les red tops et l'action en justice intentée par les MC est la preuve vivante que la diplomatie et lui font deux.
“If the investigation ever reaches its end and if it can be proved that the parents had nothing to do with it, then fine”, Amaral stressed - much as he has always maintained. It is simply the fact that no other hypothesis other than abduction has appeared to be allowed consideration (click here). But while Amaral ‘returned to Praia da Luz’ to give his view of the 10 long years since Madeleine vanished, the missing girl’s parents gave an interview to the BBC in which they insisted they will be appealing the Supreme Court decision that should have handed the former police investigator back his assets, after eight years in which they were ‘frozen’.
Dommage qu'on ne lui ait pas demandé s'il avait finalement récupéré son patrimoine.
Gerry McCann explained that what he called “the last judgement” - the ruling that upheld Amaral’s right to freedom of expression, and refused to accept the McCann’s insistence that they had been considered innocent in their daughter’s disappearance - is, in his opinion, “terrible”.
“If the investigation ever reaches its end and if it can be proved that the parents had nothing to do with it, then fine”, Amaral stressed - much as he has always maintained. It is simply the fact that no other hypothesis other than abduction has appeared to be allowed consideration (click here). But while Amaral ‘returned to Praia da Luz’ to give his view of the 10 long years since Madeleine vanished, the missing girl’s parents gave an interview to the BBC in which they insisted they will be appealing the Supreme Court decision that should have handed the former police investigator back his assets, after eight years in which they were ‘frozen’.
Dommage qu'on ne lui ait pas demandé s'il avait finalement récupéré son patrimoine.
Gerry McCann explained that what he called “the last judgement” - the ruling that upheld Amaral’s right to freedom of expression, and refused to accept the McCann’s insistence that they had been considered innocent in their daughter’s disappearance - is, in his opinion, “terrible”.
La raison pour laquelle "ce dernier jugement est terrible" est qu'il révèle l'erreur de lecture ou le wishful thinking de Clarence Mitchell et à sa suite des MC, de leurs avocats, de toute la presse internationale, une fake news ou un fait alternatif qui a duré jusqu'à ce dernier jugement, donc 9 ans. La question est de savoir si les MC ont toujours été conscients qu'ils n'avaient pas été mis hors de cause en juillet 2008, tout en espérant que la question ne serait jamais soulevée. Il est difficile de croire qu'uLe doute qui plane sur eux est, oui, absolument terrible.
“We will be appealing”, he told the national news service. The Daily Express suggests the couple plan to appeal “all the way to the European Court of Human Rights”, though there is still no certainty that this can be done - particularly as Supreme Court judges Roque Nogueira, Alexandre Reis and Pedro Lima Gonçalves released their 75-page ruling making references to tenets set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
“We will be appealing”, he told the national news service. The Daily Express suggests the couple plan to appeal “all the way to the European Court of Human Rights”, though there is still no certainty that this can be done - particularly as Supreme Court judges Roque Nogueira, Alexandre Reis and Pedro Lima Gonçalves released their 75-page ruling making references to tenets set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Ce n'est pas une raison pour s'interdire la CEDH ! Toutes les cours de justice européennes, signataires de la Convention pour la sauvegarde des droits de l'homme et des libertés individuelles, se savent observées et prennent soin de ne pas prêter le flanc à un blâme de la CEDH.
In other words, Amaral’s ‘win’ relied heavily on three judges’ interpretation of laws that the ECHR has been set up to protect.
In other words, Amaral’s ‘win’ relied heavily on three judges’ interpretation of laws that the ECHR has been set up to protect.
