Tony Bennett

This is circulating the Net on the many discussion forums which are sceptical of the McCanns' version of how Madeleine 'disappeared'. It was written in response to a McCann-sceptic who is very suspicious of the amount of high-level help the McCanns have had in this case. The case was discussed at the E.U. summit in Lisbon in October. It's all the fault of the inept Portuguese police, according to Piers:

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Piers Merchant Assistant to Roger Knapman MEP

Roger Knapman MEP has asked me to thank you for your email and to reply as he is currently travelling to Strasbourg.

First I should advise you, for your own good, to be very cautious about circulating potentially high libellous statements about Kate and Gerry McCann.

The law of defamation applies to email and the internet. Secondly your suggestion that the Prime Minister is involved in some sort of conspiracy involving a clandestine cover-up is absurd. It is a wild allegation with no evidence at all.

One of the first duties of the British government is to support its citizens abroad. It is therefore entirely correct that the government should do this in the case of Kate and Gerry McCann.

One of the elements of this support is to protect British citizens against the actions of foreign governments. The Portuguese police and judicial system is known to be suspect. Elements of the police are corrupt and indeed in this case the senior detective involved has been charged with corruption.

The Portuguese judicial system does not assume innocence before guilt in the way the British system does and operates an interrogatory process in which people are denounced as suspects without any proof. In this particular case the original police investigation was amateurish and flawed and to date nearly 10 different people have at one time or another been denounced as suspects.

It is important to realise that Portugal has no real history of citizen’s rights and liberties or democracy. From the 1920s to the mid 1970’s Portugal was ruled by a fascist dictatorship, first under Salazar and then Caetano. Political opposition was repressed and the police and judicial system was used to achieve this.

A stable multi-party democracy only came into existence in the late 1970’s and is still very young. Many of the police were trained under fascism and the institutions still bear the impact of this long period of dictatorship. In all the circumstances it is entirely right that British citizens should be protected against an unreliable foreign system. In any event I think you can rest assured that the British police and intelligence services have long had a better grip on the facts of this case than the Portuguese police.

Best wishes Piers Merchant Assistant to Roger Knapman MEP

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mkpdavies

How does anyone know what really happened. There is so much ***** flying around.

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Akebono

The truth is noone knows what in reality happened. There is so much (not a litle) xxxx xxxxx flying around.

Knapman wore glasses.

komerad

IMHO - quite a sensible letter, who was it sent to BTW?

PETWINA

I agree with Komerad.
It also clearly sets out the difference between our system of law and the continental one.

Aardvark

The difference is between our system of law and the Portuguese one; we must not assume the 'continental' system to be unified. The Portuguese managed to avoid the Code Napoleenne.

I think we have the best legal system, but we must remember, when criticising the Portuguese system that the British expat community there is one of the largest and longest established. Politicians must be careful not to do anything that puts the welfare and property of a large Brit community at risk.

The case does appear, however, to have become a complete shambles with a lot of smoke and mirrors.

It is possibly better for politicians to talk in general principals, as Piers Merchant has done in most of the letter, rather than specifics. The McCanns are entitled to the same embassy support that I would expect. In my view they are innocent until proven guilty, but obviously when you travel there is an implied agreement when entering someone else's country that you will abide by their laws and accept their processes; the harshness is when you don't break the law and become enmeshed in a process from which you cannot easily escape.

If you do commit crimes and the punishments seem harsh (death for drug peddling in Singapore) then you were probably best advised to read the country guide before you travelled.

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C_steam

I'm disapointed. I really thought this thread would read "Roger Knapman backs Gerry and the Pacemakers"

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Bellatrix

To update you:

There was an e-mail exchange between Piers Merchant and this woman Bridget Barnes but the letter above was not the original one sent from Piers.

Having worked in the media, Piers is more than capable of checking his facts and changes have been made from the original one sent from his e-mail account. In short, he did not say that the police man leading the investigation had been charged with corruption.

Tony Bennett

C_Steam wrote: "I'm disappointed. I really thought this thread would read 'Roger Knapman backs Gerry and the Pacemakers'".

REPLY: In view of the watertight 'Pact of Silence' that binds the McCanns and the other members of the 'Tapas 9' dining/boozing on that evening on 3 May, when Madeleine 'disappeared', they have been re-named 'Gerry and the PACT-makers', and they've just released this adaptation of Simon and Garfunkel's hit: 'Sound of Silence':

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Hello Russell, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again,
Because Maddie’s vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain,
Still remains. We’ll keep those walls - of silence.

In restless hours of drinking booze, The restaurants of Praia da Luz,
At the table of the Tapas bar,
I texted the media on my Nok-i-a,
When the bar was struck by the cry of Kate in fright,
That split the night. We’ll need a wall - of silence.

And in the evening light I saw, Dozens of people, maybe more.
People searching without finding,
Policemen coming without sealing.
I told people what to share - and what not to share,
And no one dared. Disturb the wall - of silence.

"Fools" said I, "You do not know, Rumour like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Via Clarence Mitchell all must go through,
And the Find Madeleine Fund will create a diversion,
And plenty of funds. And so maintain the wall - of silence”

And the media bowed and fawned, To the abduction god they spawned.
And the Team flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming,
And the sign said, "The words of the Team are written in the tabloid press
So don’t try and mess - With our wall (or should I say Pact) of Silence.

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Tony Bennett

There is much anger at Roger Knapman's/Piers Merchant's letter in the U.K. where the tens of thousands who believe the Madeleine McCann 'disappearance' is an elaborate hoax by the parents to cover a crime is discussed on various forums. The 'Daily Mirror' Forum on Madeleine McCann alone, for example, attracts well over 2,500 posts a day, most of it McCann-sceptic and a lot of it of high quality.

But Roger/Piers have not gone down too well in Portugal either - published about an hour ago is this reaction in tomorrow's 'Sol' [Sun] newspaper [provisional translation]:

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"The allegations made to the judiciary and the Portuguese Judicial Police (PJ) have no foundation and are even contradictory to what the British government and police of this country [England] have stated ', says the PGR in a position expressed.

Pinto Monteiro says, too, that "it does not make further comments on this matter", thinking that "the answer to an MEP has to be political and not legal.

The Minister of Justice and the Director of the National PJ also felt today "unspeakable" and "irresponsible" the statements of an officer of a British Member of the European Parliament who accuses the judiciary and Portuguese police to be "corrupt".

Piers Merchant, adviser to the MEP Roger Knapman, quoted by the SOL, accuses the Portuguese judicial system of being "corrupt" and noted that the British government has been involved in supporting the couple McCann because "Portugal has no real tradition of civil rights, freedoms and democracy".

Lusa / SOL

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