Portuguese police 'rushed to make McCanns suspects to avoid new law'

The parents would have been spared the anguish of being declared arguidos in their daughter, Madeleine's disappearance under a new penal code brought in just eight days after they officially fell under the cloud of suspicion, their lawyers said.

The McCanns' counsel suggested Portuguese police had deliberately acted to avoid changes in the law which mean that detectives now require credible evidence of wrongdoing to make someone a formal suspect.

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The Attorney General of Portugal has also admitted that he does not know whether the McCanns would have been made suspects in light of the new penal code which came into force on September 15 - eight days after the parents were made arguidos.

Previously the police did not need to provide any evidence to justify their suspicions, but this has now changed under the new penal code.

Attorney General, Fernando Pinto Monteiro said: "The law did not demand justified suspicions at the time in which they were made 'arguidos'.

"I do not know if they would be in light of the new code."

Yesterday friends of the couple angrily accused police of a deliberate smear campaign as the McCann's lawyer Carlos Pinto de Abreu spoke out.

He said: "After September 15, a new procedural penal code was introduced making it necessary for there to be evidence against the citizen to make him an arguido.

"Before September 15, it wasn't necessary. You could be made an arguido without any suspicions or evidence against you.

"Now to constitute anybody as an arguido it is necessary to have evidence in the file.

"That's why the national public prosecutor said that if this inquiry was launched now, maybe they would not have been made arguidos.

"Maybe that's why the inquiry happened then, why they were made arguidos eight days before the new laws came in."

When Dr Carlos was asked whether he thought police acted deliberately as they knew the new law was coming in, he added: "I don't know if that's true, but yes, it's possible."

The McCanns were made suspects at a time of mounting pressure on the police to provide a new lead in the investigation as they came under increasing criticism for their handling of the case.

At the time, the Policia Judiciaria claimed that forensic evidence proved that Madeleine came to harm in her parents' holiday apartment.

But experts at the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham have since thrown doubt on this theory saying the DNA samples were inconclusive.

Now Portuguese investigators are analysing mobile phone records of the calls in Praia da Luz before and after Madeleine disappeared on May 3.

Child protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas told Sky News that Portuguese police had discussed the records with the FSS last week.

"Although not initially analysed, it has now been and will provide vital information about mobile phone usage in and around Praia in the days leading up to Madeleine's disappearance," he said.

But the data is not as precise as that in England in locating the exact position of the caller as the triangulation depends on the telephone masts being close together and they are quite far apart in Praia da Luz.

Arguido is a term in Portuguese law which means that a person has formally been named as a suspect in an investigation.

It does not mean that a person has been charged with any offence but, crucially, a person can only be arrested if they have first been given arguido status.

As arguidos, they can be subjected to more probing questions by the police and they can be taken before a judge for restrictions to be placed on their movements, including house arrest.

Friends of the family reacted with anger to the news last night that the couple may have been spared the agony of being declared suspects.

One said: "Clearly this was a deliberate smear campaign. The police have been intent on that from the start."

The couple's spokesman Clarence Williams said yesterday: "Being declared arguidos almost three months ago caused the McCanns' immense anguish and continues to do so.

"To think they could have been saved that under a law introduced only days later makes a mockery of the case against them.

"They are entirely innocent victims of a horrible crime that has taken away their daughter and they want to be cleared as soon as possible so the focus can return to finding Madeleine.

"If it is true that changes to the law would have meant that they would not have been made arguidos that's all the reason for their status to be dropped now."