Madeleine file handed to prosecutor

LISBON – Portuguese police delivered case files on missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann to the public prosecutor yesterday, local media said, and he will decide whether to charge her parents with involvement in the crime.

Gerry and Kate McCann left for Britain on Sunday after they became suspects in Madeleine’s disappearance on May 3 from a hotel room in an Algarve resort while they were dining nearby. They have denied any involvement.Relatives have said they would return to Portugal if required by police.The file includes forensic results of evidence taken from various sites in the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine vanished and details of police interviews with the McCanns.They were both interviewed for several hours last week.The forensic evidence may clear up whether Madeleine’s DNA was found in a car hired by the McCanns after she disappeared.Alipio Ribeiro, head of the judicial police investigating the case, said that evidence was not conclusive.”Various analyses were received but none of those tests are that exact, (giving 100 per cent certainty) so in other words we cannot say that blood belongs to A or B,” he told RTP television in an interview late on Monday.Facing criticism that the investigation has been too slow, Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Costa said the police force was “investigating with all its competence and with all necessary resources”, he was quoted as saying by TSF radio.Nampa-ReutersThey have denied any involvement.Relatives have said they would return to Portugal if required by police.The file includes forensic results of evidence taken from various sites in the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine vanished and details of police interviews with the McCanns.They were both interviewed for several hours last week.The forensic evidence may clear up whether Madeleine’s DNA was found in a car hired by the McCanns after she disappeared.Alipio Ribeiro, head of the judicial police investigating the case, said that evidence was not conclusive.”Various analyses were received but none of those tests are that exact, (giving 100 per cent certainty) so in other words we cannot say that blood belongs to A or B,” he told RTP television in an interview late on Monday.Facing criticism that the investigation has been too slow, Portuguese Justice Minister Alberto Costa said the police force was “investigating with all its competence and with all necessary resources”, he was quoted as saying by TSF radio.Nampa-Reuters