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The public prosecutor in Portugal
is reported to have asked the judge in the Madeleine McCann case to make an
emergency order allowing him to seize a mystery object.
It is not known what or where the object is but the prosecutor has asked the
judge to issue an order allowing him to have it within 24 hours.
Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "The prosecution has asked
the judge for an emergency order to give them permission to go and seize it.
"We do not know where or what it is, whether it is in this country or
whether it is something perhaps the McCann family are refusing to hand
over."
Earlier, the prosecutor decided that a dossier outlining the case against missing
Madeleine McCann's parents should go before a judge.
Police handed their files to the Algarve-based prosecutor, Jose Cunha de
Magalhaes e Meneses, for him to decide whether to bring charges against Kate
and Gerry McCann.
Speaking outside the prosecutor's office in Portimao, Luisa Duarte said Mr
Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses had received the papers and decided they should go
before an instructional judge.
The development could mean the couple may find out in the next 10 days whether
they will be charged with their daughter's death.
Alternatively, it may be that the prosecutor is asking for stricter bail
conditions, another round of questioning of the McCanns or fresh searches.
But the file, which was only handed to the prosecutor by police on Tuesday, was
not expected to be passed on so quickly.
"That's a pretty dramatic development because it shows the prosecutor is
moving quickly," said Brunt.
"The prosecutor has already decided there is enough evidence for the file
to go to the judge and it will now be up to the judge to see whether there is
enough evidence to file charges.
"In the next 10 days the McCanns could find out if they are to be brought
back here to be charged with Madeleine's death."
Portugal's
attorney-general, who oversees the public prosecutor's office, said that
officials would examine police findings and announce within 10 days what
further steps would be taken.
"The investigation ... is not over, and further detective work is
required," Attorney-General Fernando Pinto Monteiro said in a written
statement.
It is also reported that he has appointed a second public prosecutor to oversee
the investigation.
Meanwhile, bodily fluids - not blood - matching Madeleine McCann's DNA have
been found in the car hired by her parents, according to sources.
The sample was taken from the boot, where the spare tyre is kept.
It had an 88% match with the missing four-year-old's DNA, sources said.
Police searching the car also found so much of Madeleine's hair that it could
not have been transferred from a blanket or clothes.
It must have come directly from her body, sources said.
The information came from senior sources in the investigation who briefed
Portuguese journalists.
It follows last night's revelation by Sky News that detectives had found DNA
evidence that Madeleine's body had been in the boot of the car hire by Mr and
Mrs McCann five weeks after their daughter's disappearance.
Brunt said: "The Portuguese press reports have been reasonably accurate in
reflecting what's going on in the thoughts, and the direction, of detectives.
"It sounds like what we reported last night is being born out."
Mr and Mrs McCann are enduring the tense wait for news at their home in
Rothley, Leicestershire.
Both have been named by police as suspects in their daughter's disappearance on
May 3 in the Algarve.
Family spokesman Brian Kennedy, who is Madeleine's great uncle, said of the
family: "They are holding up extremely well." |
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