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LONDON - The parents of missing Madeleine McCann said today they will sue a Portuguese newspaper that claimed police believe they killed their daughter.
Gerry and Kate McCann said they had instructed their lawyers to begin legal action against Tal & Qual for the "deeply hurtful" story.
"The paper claimed we killed our lovely daughter Madeleine," the couple, from Leicestershire, said in a statement. "This is without evidence or truth.
"We have tried to ignore some of the more ludicrous speculation, but we simply could not ignore T&Q's report.
"Our daughter Madeleine was snatched from her bed. She is still missing. The police have said time and time again we are not suspects. These are the facts."
Emidio Fernando, director of Tal & Qual, told the BBC he was unworried by the legal action.
He said he was "totally confident" about his paper's report, and had "complete trust" in his sources.
"We never accused Mr McCann or Mrs McCann. We just published one thing. The Portuguese police believes the ... parents killed Maddy by accident, just that," he said.
The four-year-old girl went missing from a holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz, southern Portugal, on May 3.
Several possible sightings across Europe have come to nothing and police in Portugal say she may be dead.
Newspapers in Britain and Portugal have followed every twist of the case, often reporting developments attributed to unnamed police sources.
The McCanns have led a high-profile media campaign to keep the case in the public eye. However, Gerry McCann believes some of the coverage is out of control.
Speaking at a media industry conference in Scotland last Saturday, he said some reporters had been "irresponsible".
Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, one of the detectives leading the inquiry, has told reporters the McCanns are not suspects.
- REUTERS
