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Praia da Luz, Portugal: Portuguese police will soon send a report on British toddler Madeleine McCann to prosecutors who will decide if the parents should be charged over her disappearance, a spokesman yesterday.
Police also hit back at criticism of their investigation and tactics by the parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who returned to Britain on Sunday after being named as formal suspects in the case. "The papers are being finished and should be sent today [yesterday] or tomorrow to the prosecutor handling the case," police spokesman Olegario Sousa told AFP.
The prosecutor will decide if Kate and Gerry McCann should be questioned or charged.
Madeleine McCann, now aged four, disappeared from her bedroom in a holiday complex in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 as the parents ate in a restaurant nearby.
The McCanns' family say police believe the mother was involved in the accidental death of the toddler.
Convinced
The family of Madeleine McCann dismissed the evidence against her parents as "spurious" yesterday and appealed to Portuguese police to keep looking for the missing four-year-old. Her aunt Philomena McCann said the family is convinced she is still alive and want police to shift their focus away from the parents, who are formal suspects in the case.
Gerry and Kate McCann, who returned to Britain on Sunday four months after Madeleine went missing while on holiday, are prepared to go back to Portugal for more questioning, she added.
"The Portuguese have turned this investigation round and they are no longer looking for a live child; they are assuming on spurious evidence that Madeleine is now dead," Philomena McCann told the BBC.
"Well, we don't agree with that in any shape or form. We want the investigation changed round to look for Madeleine alive, as we reckon she is."
The couple have consulted lawyers in Britain after the Portuguese police declared them formal suspects on Friday, she added. Detectives questioned the couple for hours but did not charge them.
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