Sunday, October 2, 2011

Petition: Free The McCanns: No Signatures.

Petition Spot
Free the Mc Canns
Published September 8, 2007
What does the Portuguese police have on the Mc Cann's,
blood in a car they rented 25 days after Maddy disappeared?
They want Kate Mc Cann to "confess" so the cops can save face?
Make a statement that the cops there screwed up the investigation,
please sign this petition.

Below is a Time magazine article:

Friday, Sep. 07, 2007
Could Kate McCann Be a Murderer?
By Catherine Mayer

From a distance, Kate McCann looked like a well-heeled holidaymaker enjoying the dog days of summer on Portugal's Algarve coast. But a closer look revealed the faint shadows under the 39-year-old doctor's eyes, and the set expression on her face. Kate McCann was under stress, and with good reason, as she ignored crowds of onlookers at the entrance to Portimao's police station on Friday. Four months ago, on May 3, her daughter Madeleine went missing in the nearby Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, apparently abducted from her bed after Kate and her husband Gerry left the three-year-old and her younger siblings unattended to dine with friends nearby. Since then, the McCanns have spearheaded a high-profile international campaign to find Madeleine. They have traveled across Europe and to the U.S., attended an audience with the Pope and roped in celebrities such as footballers David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo to keep the case in the public eye and encourage the police to redouble their efforts to find Madeleine. But as Kate McCann submitted to a second lengthy interrogation by police in the past two days, it became clear that the couple themselves were now the focus of the investigation.

They have been named arguidos, official suspects under Portuguese law. This means police have evidence they believe could point to the couple's involvement, but neither McCann have been arrested or charged with a crime. Robert Murat, a resident of Praia da Luz, was named an arguido at the start of the investigation but has protested his innocence and has never faced any charges. Press reports in Portugal and the U.K. have suggested that new forensic evidence may finally provide stronger clues about what might have happened to Madeleine. Yet false leads and dashed hopes have characterized the investigation almost from the start. Philomena McCann, the sister of Gerry McCann, told Britain's Sky News that the Portuguese police were suggesting that her sister-in-law accidentally killed Madeleine, hid the body and then disposed of it. "I've never heard anything so ludicrous in my life," she told Sky News. Philomena McCann told ITV News that the Portuguese police also offered Kate McCann a plea deal through her lawyer. Justine McGuinness, who heads an organization that had been raising money to search for Madeleine, told the BBC that the Portuguese authorities had based their allegations on blood found in a car rented 25 days after the child's disappearance.

As Kate McCann answered questions in Portimao police station, her husband Gerry wrote a new entry on the blog he maintains on the couple's website, www.findmadeleine.com. "Anyone who knows anything about the 3rd May knows that Kate is completely innocent. We will fight this all the way and we will not stop looking for Madeleine," he wrote. Both McCanns have repeatedly asserted their innocence, but suspicions and resentment have flourished. Criticism by the British media of the way Portuguese police have handled the case has helped stoke hostility towards the McCanns in Portugal. Last month, the McCanns said they would sue the Portuguese newspaper Tal & Qual over its report alleging police believe they accidentally killed their daughter.

In interviews, the McCanns have expressed anger, despair and guilt over their decision to leave Madeleine alone. Yet, in the eye of the storm, Kate McCann cuts a dignified figure, calm and quiet, and rarely tearful.

That has done little to win her friends or allay suspicions. On the contrary. The Portuguese daily Correio da Manha alleged on Friday that that police had always been suspicious of Kate McCann's behavior. It may be that regardless of the outcome of the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, her mother stands accused in part of a lack of visible emotion. It's a charge women may find themselves facing whether they are victim or suspect. "You aren't handed a manual when you become a victim of crime. 'Dress like this, act like this, cry now.' I didn't know there were all these ways you were supposed to behave." These are the words of Joanne Lees, a Briton whose boyfriend Peter Falconio was murdered in the Australian outback in 2001. During the trial of Falconio's murderer, Lees, a crisp and unemotional witness, found herself standing trial at the hands of a hostile media who interpreted her composure as a sign of complicity. In 1982 in another case before the Australian courts, Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of the murder of her baby Azaria, whom she said had been taken by a dingo, a wild dog, during a family camping holiday. Her dry-eyed testimony was not believed. She was exonerated after 6 years in prison. With reporting by Martha de la Cal/Lisbon
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