Six British male cleaners, who were offering their services while driving around Praia da Luz in a white van at the time Madeleine disappeared, have been marked as the principal suspects in the case by Scotland Yard, according to latest reports in the British press which said that the British police have identified them and are seeking to discover their whereabouts for questioning.
Twelve new suspects – not 20 as had been reported earlier – have been identified in the Madeleine McCann investigation by British police in a Scotland Yard review of the Portuguese inquiry into her disappearance, which has uncovered fresh leads.
They are ‘people of interest’, including Britons, who have not been fully eliminated from the case and ‘forensic opportunities’.
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are said to be encouraged by the developments but the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK has reported that a major diplomatic row is brewing because the Portuguese authorities refuse to reopen the inquiry unless firm new evidence emerges.
Scotland Yard chiefs want the Portuguese to agree to a joint investigation to explore the new leads, which they claim could result in the new evidence required and possible solution of the case, but it is currently a deadlock situation.
High level discussion is believed to have taken place in the UK about the possibility of Scotland Yard launching its own investigation. Although they do not have jurisdiction in Portugal, they have the right to investigate and prosecute any British suspects linked to Madeleine’s disappearance on May 3 2007, from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz while her parents were dining at a nearby restaurant.
Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, head of Scotland Yard’s Homicide and Serious Crime Squad, said a list had been drawn up of people who should be questioned because they might have “important information”, and he urged the Portuguese authorities to follow up these new leads if only to eliminate suspects.
A UK Home Office source said: “Clearly not all the potential suspects identified could be responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance, but the Yard are adamant that if they were running the inquiry here, these people would have been properly eliminated.”
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