Letter from Pinto de Abreu

Date 25th September 2007

Gerald McCann and Kate Healy, identified in the case number above, having been notified as to whether they are interested in being constituted ‘assistentes’ in the process, both come to reply that they have every interest in being constituted ‘assistentes’.

The constituted assistente in his/her position as collaborator of the Public Ministry is always subordinate to the PM, having the powers conferred upon him/her by article 69, no. 3 of the CPP, that is to say, all the rights of intervening in the process, offering proof and requiring the diligences they deem to be necessary, deducing independent charges and intervening in the decisions that affect them.

In this way, the status of assistente is not incompatible with the status of arguido, because it cannot be confirmed – with any degree of probability or even less of certainty – that the persons in question committed any crime or that either of them would have ‘co-participated in the crime’.

The status of assistente, as well as that of arguido confers the rights of participation and intervention in the process (many of these even coincide), but even in this exercise, they never conflict because they are always subject to the application, pondering and decisions of the judge.

To this effect and according to article 68 .1 of the CPP ‘assistentes in the penal process can be constituted as well as the persons and entities who confer them this right, in the case of the offended party being aged under 16, or due to any incapacity, the legal representative or the persons previously indicated, unless one of them has participated in the crime’.

There is no norm that prevents the constitution as assistentes of those requesting this status or that impedes them from exercising their rights as parents in representing the interests of their daughter Madeleine.

I would finally add that those making the requests, although arguidos, are innocent or at least presumed innocent, they are and do not cease to be the legal representatives of the girl Madeleine, they have a lawyer, they have paid their legal costs and in this sense, all things considered, having fulfilled all the requirements for the request, are also ‘the owners of the interests that the law particularly wishes to protect’.

Last but not least, in the latest communication from the prosecutor, annexed to this note, the Public Ministry understands that ‘no line or inquiry should be disregarded’ which is why ‘inquiries will continue under the functional direction of the Public Ministry, under the responsibility of the PJ’, inquiries that cannot be prejudiced by those making the request, independently of the status conferred or imposed upon them.
We request that they should be admitted to the status of assistentes.
Lawyer
Carlos Pinto de Abreu