The European Court of Human Rights ruled against the parents of missing Briton Madeleine McCann on Tuesday, saying Portugal had given them a fair hearing in their defamation battle against a former Portuguese police officer. Police officer Goncalo Amaral, who worked on the investigation into Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance on a family holiday in Portugal, suggested in a book he wrote, Truth of the Lie, that the youngster’s parents were involved. Kate and Gerry McCann sued Amaral for defamation. In 2015, a Portuguese court ruled in their favor, ordering Amaral to pay them compensation. Two years later the decision was overturned by Portugal’s highest court. The parents then appealed to the European court, arguing that their right to a fair trial, right to private family life and freedom of expression had not been upheld by Portugal. The ECtHR’s decision said that the Portuguese judiciary had not failed to fulfill its duty to protect the McCanns’ rights and that their arguments regarding the presumption of innocence were unfounded. “Even assuming that the reputation of the applicants had been damaged, this was not because of the argument put forward by the author of the book, but rather as a result of the suspicions expressed against them,” the ECtHR ruled. Kate and Gerry McCann said they were “disappointed” with the decision in a statement through lawyer Ricardo Correia Afonso, but added that “a lot has changed” since they started the process. The lawyer said they will not appeal. “We took action for one reason only: Mr. Amaral’s baseless allegations had a detrimental impact on the search for Madeleine,” the statement said. “The focus is now rightly on the search for Madeleine and her abductors. We are grateful for the continued work of the British, German and Portuguese police.” Madeleine McCann was three years old when she disappeared in May 2007 from her bedroom in her family’s Algarve apartment. Read the full story The parents were questioned by police as formal suspects that fall. The following July, Portuguese police dropped their investigation citing a lack of evidence and cleared her of any involvement. They have campaigned tirelessly to draw attention to their daughter’s disappearance and British public figures from business tycoons to authors to football stars have made appeals for information. In May, the German prosecutor who has been investigating the case since 2020 said new evidence had been found that could incriminate a convicted child abuser who is in prison for raping a woman in the same area when Madeleine disappeared. Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro and Patricia RuaEditing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Richard Lough and Alison Williams
