In Correio da Manhã this morning:

Maddie case �?Lawyer ponders to sue the Portuguese state

Murat reaches a deal of thousands with the papers

Robert Murat’s priority is �?SPAN>to finally stop being an arguido�? 14 months after the Judiciária of Portimão indicted him over the abduction of Madeleine. Only then “an eventual lawsuit against the Portuguese state will be pondered�? lawyer Francisco Pagarete tells CM. For the time being, the deal of hundreds of thousands of euros in compensations from 11 British newspapers and Sky News has been confirmed.

According to the television channel itself, the numbers that have been agreed upon with eight out of the 11 publications are known: between 313 thousand and 626 thousand euros. The outlines of the decision will be known tomorrow morning, during a hearing at the High Court in London. The newspapers who are initially at the issue are: Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Daily Mail, London Evening Standard, Metro, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, News of the World, Sun and Scotsman.

The agreement with Murat further includes a written apology, BBC News adds, and according to this channel, the full value of compensations may even reach 690 thousand euros. It is recalled that the lawsuit against the newspapers and Sky News, over defamation, was brought forward in April, and that in these cases, Murat, who will travel to England on purpose, has always been represented by the British law office of Simons Muirhead & Burton.

Concerning the Scottish publication ‘Scotsman�? an apology to Murat was agreed upon back in May, over an article with “seriously defamatory and completely false�?allegations. Concerning lawsuits that are already being pursued in our country, lawyer Francisco Pagarete advances that “for the time being they are two �?criminal complaints against Portuguese newspapers �?and there may be two further lawsuits but they are still being studied�?

As soon as he has access to the process, Francisco Pagarete will also “verify who gave false witness statements�?in order to incriminate Murat. Then, “they will be sued�?

The couple’s agreement

550 thousand pounds paid

The other two arguidos, Kate and Gerry McCann, obtained a compensation from the Newspapers Express group, in the amount of 550 thousand pounds.

Apology

The four newspapers in the group apologized to the couple.