Madeline case man to appear in court tonight

Madeline case man to appear in court tonight

30/06/2007 - 7:08:49 PM

An Italian man held on suspicion of trying to extort money from the parents
of missing British 4-year-old Madeleine McCann is to appear before Spain's
National Court tonight.

A Portuguese woman arrested with the man on Thursday was brought before
another court, in southern Spain, officials said.

Police said Thursday that the two were suspected of trying to extort money
from the McCanns with an offer to provide information about their missing
daughter. Neither has yet been charged.

Two Portuguese detectives who took part in the arrests and a Portuguese
police inspector said it was thought the two might be involved in the girl's
disappearance, but there was no concrete evidence.

The Italian Foreign Ministry, however, said Spanish authorities had informed
them the man had no connection with the girl's disappearance two months ago
during a family vacation in Portugal.

A court official in the southern town of San Roque said the Portuguese woman
had appeared before a judge there today, and the Italian suspect was being
taken to the National Court in Madrid to appear before judges there.

Their arrest on Thursday was ordered by a judge in the southern town of
Torremolinos. The two were not identified by name.

Madeleine disappeared May 3 after her parents left her and her brother and
sister, two-year-old twins, alone in their room while they went to a
restaurant inside their hotel complex in Praia da Luz, a tiny resort town in
Portugal's Algarve region.

A month ago, Portuguese police said they were searching for a white man
between 35 and 40.

They said the man had been wearing a dark jacket and beige trousers on the
day the girl disappeared, and was spotted possibly carrying the girl near
where she had vanished.


http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=273681464&p=z7368z3z7&n=273682407


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