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LISBON - Portugal's most senior police officer has suggested that detectives may have been too hasty in making the McCanns official suspects in the investigation into the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine.
The British couple's daughter vanished from their holiday apartment in Portugal last year.
In an interview to be aired on Portuguese radio today, Alipio Ribeiro, the national director of the Policia Judiciaria, was to concede that police may have acted too soon in making Kate and Gerry McCann formal suspects, known in Portugal as arguidos.
His comments were interpreted by the McCanns as a tacit admission that the police were wrong to name them as being involved in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter.
The couple's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, urged the Portuguese police and judiciary to drop the McCanns' arguido status.
"The only proper thing to do is eliminate Kate and Gerry from the inquiry. They, and our own investigators, can then get on working effectively to find Madeleine and bring those responsible for her abduction to justice."
Mitchell said the naming of the parents last September as official suspects might have dissuaded people from coming forward with information that could have helped.
Ribeiro's comments were reported in the broadsheet newspaper Publico yesterday and are scheduled to be repeated in an interview to be broadcast on Portugal's Radio Renascenca today. The McCanns were described as being comforted by the development.
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