UPDATED 08.32 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2007
A DECISION on the Madeleine McCann case is expected within 10 days after the Madeleine McCann files were passed on to a more senior judge just a day after being delivered to the Algarve-based public prosecutor.
The 100-page dossier was presented to José de Magalhães e Menezes in Portimao on Monday by PJ investigators. Just 24 hours later, he decided that they should be passed on to a criminal instructional judge.
It is not clear why José de Magalhães e Menezes acted so quickly, as he had been expected to take longer to study the files.
The new, more senior judge now has 10 days to consider the content of the files and review the evidence. Kate and Gerry McCann were named as suspects last week and Robert Murat was named as a suspect in May.
Options available to him include ordering more search warrants, changing the McCanns’ arguido status, asking for more interviews or for stricter bail conditions to be imposed.
Then McCanns, who are back at the family home in the UK, deny involvement in their daughter’s disappearance.
Portugal’s attorney general, Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, said that the investigation had not ended.
He said that further police action was necessary after which there could be a reassessment of possible bail conditions for the suspects.
He had full confidence in the way the police and prosecutors were handling the McCann investigation, he said.
A district prosecutor, Luis Bilro Verao, has also been appointed to oversee the investigation in addition to the local prosecutor in charge.
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