Arabic posters in Madeleine hunt - News in brief - Evening Standard
       

Arabic posters in Madeleine hunt

Armed with appeal posters written in Arabic, Kate and Gerry McCann are taking their search for Madeleine to north Africa in the last of a series of visits designed to help find their daughter.

The couple flew from Lisbon to Casablanca on Sunday before travelling on to the Moroccan capital of Rabat.

Morocco has repeatedly surfaced in the hunt for their four-year-old daughter, with reported sightings and apparent mobile telephone links.

The McCanns will spend two days in Rabat, meeting child abuse and molestation groups as well as holding their now routine press conference.

It is 39 days since Madeleine was snatched from her bed in the Algarve resort town of Praia da Luz.

The couple have said this trip is the last they will do in their attempts to find their daughter but are determined to stay in Portugal until she is found.

Mrs McCann, 38, was particularly keen to go to Morocco because of its proximity to Spain and Portugal.

It is just 35 minutes from Spain by ferry and they run several times a day.

Mr McCann, 39, said the borders of Portugal were not closed for at least 12 hours after Madeleine was abducted, making it very possible that she was smuggled out of the country.

A sighting at a petrol station in Marrakesh six days after she disappeared is one of the leads that the McCanns want to make sure is being followed up.

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