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Costa Rica
has promised to ask for British police help on the vanishing of British
journalist Michael Dixon, following a personal intervention by UK
consular affairs minister Jeremy Browne
LONDON, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Costa Rica's Vice
President and Vice Foreign Minister promised to take the step at a
face-to-face meeting in San Jose with Jeremy Browne in October.
Browne in a letter to the Dixon family dated 27 October confirmed that:
"I raised Michael's case with the Vice President and Vice Foreign
Minister at my meeting ... [they] expressed their sympathy with you and
your family and confirmed again that any new evidence would be
investigated. They also agreed to ask the Costa Rican police to issue a
formal invitation to the Metropolitan Police to help review the
information available."
The Dixon family wants UK police to send investigators to Costa Rica as
they did to Portugal in September in the Madeleine McCann case.
Browne in his letter warned, however: "It is ... for the Metropolitan
Police to decide the extent to which they can become involved."
Michael Dixon, a British journalist resident in Belgium, vanished after
leaving his hotel room in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, on 18 October 2009. The
Costa Rica police initially claimed he drowned. It later put the
investigation on hold despite indications he was the victim of a violent
crime.
Michael's mother, Lynn Dixon, said: "We want to thank Costa Rica for
this important decision. I can't imagine that the Met would let us down
by saying No."
Michael's brother, David Dixon, added: "We've been trying to look for
Michael on our own for the last two years. I've been to Tamarindo
several times. I've spoken to witnesses who say they saw him that night.
But it's a dangerous place - I'm concerned for my own safety and I don't
have the resources to do this properly. The Met is our only hope."
According to the British foreign office, 28,000 UK nationals visit Costa
Rica each year. Twelve other foreign nationals have either gone missing
or were murdered there in the past two years. Most of the cases have
gone unsolved.
BROWNE letter to Dixon family:
LINKS BBC documentary on Michael Dixon
Download COME HOME - charity single in support of missing people
SOURCE
RISI UBM
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