Gerry and Kate McCann appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over a book, documentary and newspaper interview by Gonçalo Amaral. Mr Amaral, who worked on the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007, suggested in his book Truth of the Lie that the girl’s parents were involved. Madeleine’s parents claimed his statements damaged their reputations and violated their rights to respect for their private lives and to be presumed innocent. The couple’s complaint also said Portugal’s highest court did not allow them adequate relief for alleged defamation by Mr Amaral after judges rejected their claim in 2017. The ECHR ruled on Tuesday that there was no violation of Article 8, the right to respect for private and family life, of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court found that the couple’s reputations had been damaged by the fact that they became official suspects in the case for a short period of time, rather than by Mr Amaral’s comments. The court stated in its decision: “The court held that, even if it were assumed that the reputation of the applicants had been damaged, this was not because of the argument advanced by the author of the book, but rather as a result of the suspicions leveled against them, which resulted in them being investigated during the criminal investigation (the DA’s office decided not to take further action in July 2008) and had led to intense media attention and much controversy. The ECtHR found that the reputations of Kate and Gerry McCann were damaged by the fact that they became official suspects in the case for a short time, rather than the former Portuguese detective’s comments (Joe Giddens/PA) “Therefore, the information was disclosed in some detail to the public even before the investigation file was made available to the media and the book in question was published. “It followed that the national authorities had not breached their positive obligation to protect the applicants’ right to respect for their private life.” The McCanns now have three months to appeal the decision. Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007 as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant. Former Portuguese detective Goncalo Amaral (pictured here in 2013) suggested in his book Truth of the Lie that the girl’s parents were involved in her disappearance (Ellen Branagh/PA) Mr Amaral, who led the original investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, released the book days after the case was closed in 2008 and later took part in a documentary for Portuguese television and gave interviews to the media. Earlier this year, German investigators found new evidence against the main suspect in her disappearance, a prosecutor revealed in an interview with Portuguese television. Convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner was declared a suspect in the case by Portuguese officials in April as he was approaching the statutory 15-year term and has been under investigation by German officials for two years.
