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PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal - British couple Kate and Gerry McCann, named as suspects in the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter Madeleine in Portugal, will return home today, a family spokeswoman said.
"Kate and Gerry will be returning home to the UK this morning as originally planned," Justine McGuiness said in a statement issued in the early hours of Sunday.
"It is emphasised that their return is with the full agreement of the Portuguese authorities and police," she said.
Portuguese police declared the McCanns formal suspects on Friday after questioning them but have so far filed no charges against them, according to the couple's lawyer.
Declaring the McCanns suspects indicated police believed they might have been involved in a crime but did not necessarily mean they would be detained.
No conditions were imposed on the McCanns, which meant they were free to travel abroad, their lawyer said.
"They can travel whenever and wherever they like," lawyer Carlos Pinto de Abreu told Reuters, adding that the McCanns could remain at their home in England as the police investigation continued.
Gerry McCann rejected any suggestion he and his wife were responsible for their daughter's death.
"We did not kill Maddie," he told the British Sunday newspaper News of the World.
"We're entirely innocent and we will clear our name," he said in an interview with the tabloid.
The lease on the house where the McCanns were staying in the resort of Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished more than four months ago is due to expire on Tuesday.
Relatives have urged Portuguese police to eliminate the couple, who are both aged 39, from their inquiries and resume the hunt for the child.
"If this is what it takes to speed up the process of absolutely exonerating Gerry and Kate, let's get on with it," Gerry's brother John McCann told BBC radio.
Abreu said he had no idea how long the case would take to be concluded in a country that suffers from serious bureaucratic delays in its justice system.
The Portuguese weekly Expresso on Saturday cited legal experts as saying it could take at least a year.
Police changed their line of investigation this week after receiving results of forensic tests on evidence collected by Portuguese and British experts from various sites including the holiday apartment from which Madeleine vanished on May 3.
McGuinness said Kate had told her that police found blood in a car hired by the couple, but there was no confirmation that it was Madeleine's.
Police have pursued several leads during the four-month investigation, including the possibility that Madeleine might have been taken by a paedophile.
The only other suspect is a Briton living in Praia da Luz, Robert Murat. His house has been searched twice but he has not been arrested.
Hundreds of people from around the world contacted police offering help after the McCanns launched a massive publicity campaign to find their daughter who disappeared a few days before her fourth birthday.
Pictures of the Madeleine have been posted across Europe at schools, airports and restaurants and the McCanns have met Pope Benedict, who blessed a picture of the child.
- REUTERS
