Final arguments in the €1 milion case for defamation brought five years ago by the parents of Madeleine McCann against former PJ policeman Gonçalo Amaral were being heard in court in Lisbon on Wednesday morning.
The judge’s decision on the case is expected to come in February.
Amaral told newspapers this week that throughout the trial the McCanns have “tried to pass off the idea that what is being judged is their innocence”.
“Legally, this is not at issue at all,” he told Jornal de Notícias this week. “What is at issue is the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the book I wrote and, if so, whether it is possible to establish a causality link between the book and the possible damages they allege to have suffered.”
As the spotlight once again shifted to Amaral’s book “A Verdade da Mentira (The Truth of the Lie)” in Lisbon, miles south in the Algarve a new selection of key witnesses prepared for a day of questioning by visiting Met detectives working on Operation Grange (see stories: https://www.portugalresident.com/madeleine-witness-identities-%E2%80%9Crevealed%E2%80%9D-as-met-police-return-to-algarve and https://www.portugalresident.com/ugly-scenes-mark-first-day-of-new-madeleine-mccann-interrogations)
McCann defamation case comes to court as media concentrates on Algarve
