McCanns withdraw complaint against journalists from Tal&Qual
The McCann couple has decided to withdraw the complaint against the Tal & Qual journalists who reported that the police believed that Maddie McCann had been killed by her parents, according to a press release from the Public Ministry in Lagos.
Tal &Qual
The document states that Gerry and Kate McCann declared that they “have no interest in proceeding” with the case, which originated from a criminal complaint that was filed by the couple against Emídio Fernando, the former director of now extinct Tal&Qual, and journalist Ana Catarina Guerreiro.
In August 2007, the two journalists signed an article, which was front page news in the paper, according to which the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) believed that it had been the couple that had accidentally killed their daughter.
Emídio Fernando told Lusa that he was satisfied over the archiving of the process, although he never even felt relieved, because he had never been worried in the first place.
“I was always tranquil, because I never accused anyone. The news said that the PJ didn’t believe in the McCanns’ innocence. What we wrote in the news was that they were going to be heard and that they might become arguidos”, he said.
Emídio Fernando stressed that, at the time when he wrote the article, he fully trusted the source and he was “absolutely certain” that the police would fetch the couple, which was confirmed two weeks after the front page news.
“I wouldn’t change a comma if it were today. My only failure was to say that the couple would be heard in the week after [the article] and they ended up being heard two weeks later”, he added.
Concerning the motives for the McCanns’ withdrawal, Emídio Fernando says that he has no idea whatsoever, but he underlines that at the time, he understood that the couple wished to sue him, he merely found it was strange that they decided to do so one week after the article was published.
source: Diário de Notícias, 17.08.2009
Previous….
Gerry McCann interview for the BBC
31st August 2007
“We firmly believe that the report was speculative, defamatory and published despite official statements to the contrary, which is why we have instructed lawyers. Our daughter Madeleine was snatched from her bed on 3 May. She is still missing. The police have said time and time again we are not suspects. These are the facts. Everything else is at best speculation and in some cases downright lies.”
“We have of course considered it. In August 2007, we did issue proceedings against the Tal e Qual newspaper and that organisation has subsequently gone bust. An indicator of it is that is still going through the process of the courts. It is very unlikely that we will follow it up but we have chosen at this time not to take action in Portugal, primarily because we have been advised that it would be a very long and drawn-out process.(…) We want to work with the Portuguese in the search and although we cannot and will not rule it out in future, for the time being we have decided to try and get on with doing what we think everyone should be doing, and focusing on Madeleine and not on what has been said in the past.”
