The Madeleine Foundation letter to Gordon Brown in support of a

The Home Office has to date refused to answer Freedom of Information
questions put to them about this issue, although there does not seem to be any
way that the release of this information could possibly prejudice the laying of
charges against anyone who might be arrested in connection with Madeleine’s
‘disappearance’. All other things being equal, criminal investigations must be
conducted as expeditiously as possible. If there was any fault of the Home
Office in delaying or otherwise frustrating the wish of the Portuguese police to
carry out interviews with the ‘Tapas 9’ as soon as possible, this clearly must be
investigated independently and an explanation sought from the Home
Secretary at the time, Jacqui Smith, and those senior civil servants who were
involved in dealing with the request for Leicestershire Police to carry out these
‘rogatories’.
In addition, now that the full transcript of these rogatory interviews have been
released, it is clear that the answers from the ‘Tapas 9’ generated far more
questions than they yielded answers. It may be a question more for the
Portuguese police than for Leicestershire Police, but anyone evaluating those
rogatory interviews and the hesitant, vague and contradictory answers given
by most of the ‘Tapas 9’, would be bound to ask why apparently no further and
follow-up questions were asked of any of them. That is also an issue that a
public enquiry should examine.
A further question in relation to these rogatory interviews is why (as has been
admitted by Leicestershire Police) the ‘Tapas 9’ were allowed to read
statements they had previously made to the Portuguese police, to refresh their
memories, and why, in at least one case, a couple were allowed to read their
respective spouse’s statements - given that one of the key issues about the
original ‘Tapas 9’ statements was the degree of contradiction between them
all.
6. Possible leaks from the investigation to the McCanns and in
particular possible leaks of the contents of the rogatory interviews
to the McCanns and their 'Tapas 9' friends, either by Leicestershire
Police or the Home Office
Goncalo Amaral, in his book, has referred to the suspicious way in which the
McCanns appeared able to glean information about what was happening
within his investigation, which points to possible corrupt officers within the
Portuguese investigation team, and possibly also to links with corrupt officers
within Leicestershire Police. It has also been suggested that the McCanns and
‘Tapas 9’ may have had some advance notice of the questions going to be
asked of them in the rogatory interviews, so as to enable them to prepare for
them. That would be a serious breach of the strict confidentiality surrounding
in any investigation and we believe that only a robust independent enquiry
would be able to establish whether this did, or might have, taken place.
7. What was the purpose and what was the outcome of the 'Meeting
of Superintendents' which Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior
said was held on 20 September 2007?
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