Madeleine suspect questioned again in Portugal

The only formal suspect in the disappearance of four-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal today returned to a police station where officials said they were holding new interviews with people connected to the case.

Anglo-Portuguese Robert Murat, 33, who lives near the hotel where the four-year-old from Rothley, Leicestershire, vanished more than two months ago, entered a local police station where he spent about seven hours yesterday, pictures broadcast by cable news channel SIC Noticias showed.

Police questioned Murat in the days following Madeleine’s disappearance, but later released him, saying they did not have enough evidence to bring charges. Murat has denied any involvement.

Detectives have said they planned to speak again this week to people they previously questioned and cross-check their statements.

Those returning to the police station in Portimao, near the resort town in Portugal’s Algarve region where Madeleine vanished, would include Murat’s business acquaintances and McCann family friends, SIC Noticias reported.

Madeleine on disappeared May 3 after her parents Gerry and Kate left her and her brother and sister, two-year-old twins, alone in their room while they went to a restaurant inside their hotel complex in Praia da Luz.