At last, a vital breakthrough -

or just more Maddie madness?

Great interest has been aroused by the news that the hitherto little-known man pictured on the right has recently given police in Spain information about the 'abduction' of Madeleine McCann.

He is 36-year-old Marcelino Jorge Italiano, an Angolan national, who worked in the Algarve for 10 years as a nightclub doorman or 'bouncer'. He has also been described as an 'amateur investigator'.

He claims to know key figures in an Algarve-based group of paedophiles who organised Madeleine's abduction from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007. They supposedly include two Algarve businessmen with high-level links to the Portuguese judiciary and a legal practice in London. Individuals in Faro and Albufeira are said to be secretly involved.

Italiano says he thinks Madeleine may now be in the United States. He is positive the group have taken other children from the Algarve. “I think at least a dozen have been kidnapped,” he said.

He has told police that he has seen photographs of group members and obtained information about them from the ex-wife of one of the businessmen involved.

Italiano also said he was “terrified” by the group and that he had been attacked for threatening to expose them. “They are ruthless. I have been attacked twice for trying to investigate, and even lost my front tooth.”

All this has been reported by the international media. Assuming it has been reported accurately, is it fact or fantasy? Has Italiano provided vital clues, or is it just yet more moronic conjecture based on half-truths or no truths at all? Intriguingly, that remains to be seen.

Italiano reportedly fled across the Algarve-Andalusian border and turned up with a lawyer in Huelva last week to hand over a 'dossier' to Spanish police. An Andalusian newspaper, the Olive Press, reported that his lawyer was present during an hour-long interview with police in the city. His lawyer told the Olive Press: “He seems credible and believable. He does not trust the Portuguese police.”

The lawyer continued: “He also seems pretty convinced that Maddie may have been taken from Portugal to the US.”

Spanish and Portuguese police are investigating these new claims. Madeleine's parents, Drs Kate and Gerry McCann have welcomed the news. Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell said Italiano had done "absolutely the right thing" by going to police with his suspicions.

Many people who have closely followed the on-going Maddie saga have long ago ruled out all abduction theories. Reaction to the latest claims has been highly sceptical, or downright dismissive. Even Clarence Mitchell expressed reservations.

“America is a long way from Portugal. Smuggling a child into America through traditional channels would be virtually impossible. That’s not to say it’s not feasible; it possibly could be done; it’s something that investigators have considered. There have been other tip-offs that America may have been a destination, but so far nothing has come of those.”

Mr Mitchell said that as Italiano had not approached the media first, seeking money for his story, and because he was naming names, he may be a “slightly more serious informant than some”.

However, he added: “That is not to say it is not fantasy, we just don’t know at this stage.”

Hopefully, we soon will.

Working mother-of-two chosen as Britain's next Lisbon Ambassador

She may seem much too young and full of fun for the job. Simply that she is a woman makes her appointment unusual. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London has appointed Ms Jill Gallard as Britain's next Ambassador to Portugal.

The announcement was made yesterday (Wednesday) although Ms Gallard is not expected to take up her appointment until July. She will be only the second woman to serve as Britain's ambassador to Portugal in the long diplomatic history of the two nations. In a way that is not so surprising considering that politically and diplomatically Portugal is still steeped in male dominance.

The only woman in the post before her was the formidable Dame Glynne Evans, who was in Lisbon between 2004 and 2007. Not only a diplomat but an academic with a special interest in military history, Dame Glynne since her retirement has been a research associate at the Royal United Services Institute and an Advisor to the Director of the Defence Academy in the UK.

Dame Glynne is a spinster. The newly appointed ambassador is married to Dominic Gallard and they have two young sons. Yesterday's announcement did not reveal Ms Gallard's age but it noted that she joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1991.

She quickly became Desk Officer for Spain and Portugal in the Consular Department. In the summer of 1992 she was Consular Attaché in Barcelona during the Olympic Games. Since then she has spent much of her career working on European Union and EU enlargement matters. Apart from London, Ms Gallard has worked in Prague, Madrid and Brussels.

Pending her arrival, another married mother with two sons, Ms Joanna Kuenssberg O’Sullivan, is holding the fort. Formerly Deputy Head of Mission, she has been Charge d’Affaires at the Embassy since the departure of the previous ambassador, Alex Ellis.

Senior female involvement at the Embassy does not end there either. The head of the UK Trade & Investment Section is a woman; the Consul in Lisbon is a woman; and the head of the Corporate Services (Management) Section is also a woman.  So is the Director of the British Council in Portugal.

The youthful Mr Ellis obviously not only approved of women occupying high places, he was also one of Britain's first 'digital diplomats' and regular wrote a blog in Portuguese. He was an example of how a younger generation seem to be shedding the stuffy image that once shrouded ambassadors. It is a trend that Ms Gallard looks like continuing.

Still, centuries-old tradition cannot just be thrown to the wind. Commenting on her new job, Ms Gallard said: “I am honoured and delighted to be appointed HM Ambassador to Portugal. I look forward to further developing the deep relationship between the UK and Portugal, the oldest alliance in the world, and to promoting our close partnership, both in the bilateral political and commercial context and in multilateral fora such as the EU, the UN and NATO. Our people and businesses help to maintain these ties in every aspect of life in our two countries.”

An environmental battle

looms in the Monchique hills

A proposed mineral mining project in an unspoilt and supposedly protected section of the Serra de Monchique has aroused suspicions and serious concerns among local residents after a similar project was rejected 15 years ago.

News of the latest project first appeared, not in the government's Diário de República as one would have expected, but in a paid-for notice in the local monthly newspaper, Jornal de Monchique.

The notice was placed by the Energy and Geology General Directorate (DGEG). It was dated 10 January, but the paper did not come out until 31 January. The notice said objections to the proposal should be lodged within 30 days of it appearing in the Diário de República. It still has not appeared there so the deadline for objections remains in doubt.

The president of the Monchique municipal council is said to have had no forewarning about the announcement. Apparently he only heard about it last week, on 8 February. The municipal council, like just about everyone who lives in the Monchique area, is believed to be opposed to the plan.

The project would be carried out by FELMICA-Minerais Industriais S.A, a major company based in Viseu in central Portugal, which extracts and processes raw materials for the ceramic industry. The company is part of the MOTA group.

It will be up to the government to examine the proposal and listen to any objections before giving or refusing permission. Veterans of other campaigns against projects in environmentally sensitive areas fear approval is virtually certain as big money is involved. “Big money equals power,” said one sceptic yesterday.

The parameters of the proposed site have been disclosed, but it is not publicly known what form the mine would take. No details have been revealed about how it would be operated.

“MOTA ceramic solutions was created to offer raw materials, prepared bodies, and professional services to the ceramic world at the highest standards of quality,” according to the group's website.

A MOTA spokesman told the Algarve Resident last week that the project will not affect the environment because “all impact studies possible are being carried out.”

According to the Resident, the spokesman said: “The project will only progress if the government considers it economically viable. We are studying what is viable within the Natura 2000 regulations and all adjustments will be made in accordance with this network in order to minimise any damage to the environment of the area.”

He said there was no reason for alarm among local residents. “People should not be alarmed because this project will only go ahead with the approval of all parties - residents, Câmara and parish councils - and our obligation is to hear people’s opinions and not affect land owners and the environment."

But there is alarm in the area because of what seems like a lack of transparency. People there are worried that a mining operation could radically affect thousands of households as well as causing untold damage to flora and fauna.

A principle concern is that aquifers, for which the Monchique region has been famous for centuries, may be fundamentally disturbed. Many households with no access to mains or borehole supplies depend on aquifers as their only source of water.

Fifteen years ago, a plan for a mine in exactly the same spot was rejected because of the danger it posed to underground aquifers.

No information has been released yet on whether minerals are to be extracted from an open cast mine / quarry or a closed underground mine. It is not known if they will be processed on-site or transported elsewhere. So it is impossible for the public to make sound judgements yet about possible air or sound pollution, or access road and traffic considerations.

Will property prices be affected? Will burgeoning small-scale, sutainable tourism businesses be stopped in their tracks? Will elderly, hillside farmers already operating on the breadline be denied water for their crops? Questions are hanging in the air because of a hitherto lack of transparency.

The people living in the area – expatriates of various nationalities as well as Portuguese of all ages, some working, some retired - can see no local benefits whatever accruing from this proposed project.

MOTA may insist that “people should not be alarmed” - but they have good reason to be alarmed because so far they have been kept largely in the dark.
A small but vibrant group of protesters have held preliminary meetings and are due to discuss strategy in another meeting, this time in the Junta de Freguesia de Alferce, starting at 2pm on Saturday 19 February.

Meanwhile, they have invited objectors to sign a petition available online at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-Monchique-from-greedy-hands

Classified information:

More people are moving out

The classified ads' columns in newpapers can provide an accurate barometer of trends in a community. A major trend currently on display in the Algarve is that more and more people – Portuguese and foreign nationals – are leaving the country because of the economic climate.

The publishers of the weekly Algarve 123 recently analysed the classifieds in their paper over the past 64 issues. They found that the phrase “for sale due to leaving the country/ moving abroad” is becoming increasingly frequent.

Algarve 123 is a tri-lingual paper with Portuguese and German readers, as well as English. The most common profile of those placing ads indicating they are moving out is a Portuguese, in their 30s. He or she is looking for work, but simply cannot find it here.

An article headed “Who'll be left?” in the current issue of the paper said of many advertisers: “They put the contents of their homes up for sale (furniture, household appliances, children’s toys even), as well as their cars. And we ask ourselves: can the country really afford to lose these active members of the population; these families who supposedly are (or should be) the basis of contemporary society?”

Ads over the past 64 weeks also reveal an increasing number of British, German, Dutch and even Brazilian citizens leaving the Algarve to return to their homeland, off-loading family pets among other possessions in the process.

A British client told the paper that “life is getting more and more difficult here” and that she was leaving because she feared it was going to get much worse.

A German reader who had a business in the Algarve for many years said she was leaving because she was 'sick and tired of the way the economy here doesn’t work'.

“This was just one example among many small businesses, shops and services that should be bringing dynamism and diversity to the Algarve. Instead, everyday, they’re closing down,” the paper commented.

It wondered if the Algarve is going to end up being inhabited only by retired people and the corrupt?

Freedom of expression
is neither free nor faultless

While there has been much international focus this week on the importance of freedom of speech, journalists have been under attack, physically and verbally.

“Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are pillars of an open and inclusive society,” said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Referring to the uprising in Egypt, she also called on the government there to unblock social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, that had been used to organise protests. The minefield territory of WikiLeaks remained for the moment in the background. For Clinton and many others, WikiLeaks is too free.

Are press freedom and freedom of expression basic human rights that we greatly value or abused luxuries that we take for granted?

In an article in the Guardian newspaper, the veteran British journalist Simon Jenkins contended that journalistic ethics are in a “mess”. He is right of course – and this applies not just to the 'mainstream' media in the UK, but to all types of journalism, including electronic newspapers and blogging, just about everywhere.

Jenkins focused mainly on the alleged hacking of voicemail accounts of prominent people in Britain. This much-publicised scandal remains unresolved. The full ramifications of electronic surveillance technologies and the internet mean that any clear application of the law is impossible, so a new map of ethical territory is needed, Jenkins suggested.

As he put it, there is now “a thoroughly confused boundary between the public and private realms, between openness and secrecy, publicity and privacy, rapacity and trust.”

Journalists should try to obey the law. But which law? “Official secrets law is a shambles. Privacy law is made up on the hoof. Court injunctions are improvised explosive devices.”

Continued Jenkins: “Journalists have claimed 'public interest' in defence of actions that others might consider unethical and lawyers illegal. The reality of the matter is that one person's brave investigation is another's illicit intrusion. Journalists may claim a licence to judge the public interest for themselves, but this requires public trust, which is wearing thin.”

He concluded that the job of the journalist will always be to pursue the story, pushing boundaries when a case for public interest can be proved. “But this pushing will attract public trust only where professional self-regulation can be seen to work, as it works up to a point for doctors and lawyers. For the moment, anarchy rules.”

In Portugal, after a long history of censorship and oppression, the current constitution guarantees free speech and absolute freedom of the press. The law includes the right of journalists to access government documents. Their freedom includes rights of expression and 'creativeness'.

Yet Portugal rates only 40th in the latest world press freedom index drawn up by the international watchdog organisation, Reporters without Borders. That's 40 out of a total list of 178, but Portugal is a long way down from the Netherlands, Ireland, the Scandinavian countries and Germany. The UK ranks 19^tth.

Portugal's reputation was tainted last year when the Lisbon-based weekly Sol was fined €1.5 million for defying a court injunction not to publish details from phone conversations recorded in a police surveillance operation.

The report implicated Prime Minister José Sócrates and other people close to him in an alleged attempt by Portugal Telecom to buy a controlling stake in the privately-owned television station TVI. Reporters without Borders expressed outrage and denounced the court rulings as “judicial harassment”.

In April last year, a Portuguese MP snatched audio recorders from two journalists to whom he had granted an interview in the parliamentary library. He stormed out of the room with the recorders in his pocket. Later, he explained his action by claiming that the journalists' questions amounted to “unbearable psychological violence”.

Reporters without Borders said it was “surreal behaviour that one normally sees only in the most authoritarian countries”.

Efforts by some Portuguese politicians since the introduction of the current constitution to bring about more media control, and recent defamation prosecutions that critics say impinge upon freedom of expression, need to be carefully watched by all who value “pillars of an open and inclusive society”.

Awaiting trial, Serena Wylde campaign for change in libel laws

Algarve holiday homeowner Serena Wylde has had some sleepless nights but not the slightest remorse over the letter of complaint about a Portuguese lawyer that has landed her in court facing a charge of aggravated criminal defamation.

On the contrary, she regards her experience at the hands of the law here as a sort of call-to-arms. She is angry and points out that “anger produces energy.” She has launched a campaign to highlight all kinds of injustices in cases involving ethics, human rights and politics. (For the background to her own case, see my last blog).

Ms Wylde, 59, is a retired businesswoman. Married to a retired Portuguese bank executive, she is highly intelligent, tenacious and passionately concerned with ethics, truth and justice.

After a criminal process was opened in 2007 over her letter of complaint to the Portuguese lawyers' regulatory body, the Ordem dos Advogados, she began studying law herself. She is in the process of studying for a masters degree.

Not all Portuguese lawyers are in her line of fire. She has nothing but praise for the professionalism and punctiliousness of her Lisbon-based defence lawyer, Francisco Teixeira da Mota. This formidable advocate has successfully prosecuted Portugal for violation of Freedom of Expression at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg no less than five times, the latest just before Christmas.

Defamation is broadly defined as a statement that gives a false, damaging impression of someone to others. In verbal form it is called slander; in written form it is libel.

In her own words and reported here for the first time, this is how Serena Wylde views the situation regarding defamation in Portugal compared to the UK. While there are differences, a most important fact to bear in mind is that the law in Portugal does not exist in isolation; a person convicted of a criminal offence in Portugal is automatically recognised as a criminal in the UK and elsewhere.

Serena Wylde says:

<  Vexatious libel litigants in Portugal have little to lose, because:

1. It costs relatively little to bring a criminal libel case in Portugal as it is essentially paid for by the Public Prosecution Service. (Judges themselves who bring libel cases enjoy favourable terms…and are exempt from paying any court costs!)

2. In Britain litigants who bring false actions for libel are ordered to pay the other side’s legal costs and expenses, and if found to have lied are prosecuted for perjury and given a jail sentence. No such consequences hang in the balance in Portugal.

3. Even when the European Court of Human Rights determines that Portugal is in breach of Article 10 governing Freedom of Expression (which it invariably does) and orders the State to reimburse the applicant all fines and damages paid plus expenses incurred, the Portuguese litigant still gets to keep his/her “compensation” as the bill is footed by the Portuguese taxpayer!

There are therefore few deterrents to discourage spurious claims. Hence, libel actions are used as a highly effective intimidatory and persecutory weapon to silence critics, whistle-blowers and consumers alike, leaving the hapless individual who has spoken out with a European Criminal Record and the claimant with a profit! A win-win situation for any malicious litigant.

Unlike in Britain, where it is considered essential that libel cases be determined by a jury, and thus it remains the only civil case still to be decided by twelve members of the public, in Portugal the decision rests at 1st instance with one judge.

The offence of aggravated defamation is an inversion of democracy because it provides for greater punishment where the plaintiff is a judge, public official, lawyer or member of the clergy; insulating from criticism and scrutiny the very people who exercise power over other people’s lives, and therefore need to be subject to greater, not less, scrutiny and accountability.

The only legitimate purpose of libel laws is to protect reputations from unwarranted attack and the dissemination of false statements of fact. A reputation is an objective, definable concept and hence the European Convention refers to the balancing of the rights of freedom of expression and protection of reputation.

In Portugal, criminal libel proceedings can be initiated on the flimsy and totally subjective argument that “one’s honour has been offended”, regardless of the legitimacy of the criticism or the veracity of the statement, and the Portuguese version of Article 10 of the Convention has substituted the word “reputation” for the term “honour.”  >

"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."
  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Controversial trial of English holiday homeowner suspended

To the bewilderment and dismay of many international observers, an Englishwoman, Serena Wylde, was due to stand trial in Lagos tomorrow (Tuesday) as a result of making a complaint to an official regulatory body of the Portuguese legal profession.

Then this afternoon, the court in Lagos confirmed that Ms Wylde’s trial date has been suspended. The decision followed an urgent application made by her Portuguese lawyer questioning the impartiality of the trial judge.

Shortly before the suspension announcement, the British organisation Fair Trials International issued a statement saying “it beggars belief” that the trial was being held. “The prosecution flies in the face of free speech and puts those in positions of power beyond reproach,” said the organisation's' chief executive, Jago Russell.

Ms Wylde, who owns a holiday home in Praia da Luz, faces a possible nine-month jail sentence because of a letter she sent in confidence in January 2005 to the bar association, Ordem dos Advogados.

In her letter she called for disciplinary action to be taken against a prominent lawyer in Lagos, Pimenta de Almeida Borges. It arose from a dispute she had in 2004 with a neighbour about a gate and a garage. Mr Borges had been acting for the neighbour.

Ms Wylde claimed that she and her neighbour settled their dispute out of court in August 2005 and that Mr Borges was instructed accordingly, but he carried on legal proceedings away. This caused considerable anxiety for both her and her neighbour, said Ms Wylde.

She told the regulatory body in her letter that Mr Borges had acted in “an improper and unscrupulous manner”. She asked that his conduct be investigated. In June 2006, Borges also wrote a letter of complaint to the regulatory body – about Ms Wylde, claiming she had defamed him.

While still investigating the matter, the regulatory body forwarded Ms Wylde's letter to the public prosecutor's office which began proceedings against Ms Wylde for aggravated criminal defamation. The first inkling she had of this was in February 2007 when two policemen arrived at her Praia da Luz home and told her to report to the office of the Judicial Police (PJ).

Mrs Wylde, a 59-year-old businesswoman from Putney in London, has a close connection with Portugal. She has a Portuguese husband and speaks the language. Both of her parents, from whom she inherited her holiday home, are buried in the Algarve.

Mr Borges is the son of a former Supreme Court judge. He comes from a prominent family in Portugal and has described himself in correspondence with the prosecutor 's office as “a well-to-do and cultured individual”. He is seeking €50,000 in damages, although he admits “it is difficult to fix a sum to indemnify the offence suffered by one who exercises his profession with such honour, dignity and seriousness”.

Fair Trials International is taking a rather different view. They believe “this type of criminal action has the effect of placing the legal profession in Portugal above reproach and outside of any effective regulation”.

Fair Trials International added: “Serena Wylde took the responsible route of making a complaint when she encountered what she considered to be inappropriate actions by a lawyer. She did this, not to further her own interests, but to seek to uphold the integrity of the legal profession and to protect others from unprofessionalism. As a result she is being put through a harrowing and completely unjustified ordeal”.

It certainly has been an ordeal for Ms Wylde. She said in 2009: “It is devastating to be charged with a criminal offence. In my case this happened because I told what I believe to be the truth and it has been turned against me by those who don’t want to hear it. This ordeal has made me question every reference point of my daily security, and even my own sanity.”

Britain's former Justice Secretary, Jack Straw said in December 2009 he had discussed the case with Portuguese State Secretary Jose Magalhães and would "follow it up" . Straw said he was using the case as an example of why close cross-border co-operation in justice and home affairs issues was crucial in Europe. "Nobody asked me to intervene - I just raised it because I saw a news item on television about the situation and decided to pursue it," he said.

It was hoped the case would be dropped. But no. The legal action has been brought by the State, with Mr Borges as a civil claimant. Now that it has been suspended, the challenge to the conditions for a fair trial will be assessed by a higher court in Évora. If successful, a different judge will hear Ms Wylde's case