2009-01-15
Fund pays for luxury hotel
by Sónia Trigueirão
Madeleine’s father and the English lawyer who accompanied him on the visit to Portugal, on Tuesday, were lodged at the D. Pedro Palace, a five-star hotel and one of the most luxurious ones in Lisbon. Everything, of course, financed by the ‘Find Madeleine’ Fund.
As far as CM was able to establish, one night at the D. Pedro, in a single room, may cost between 214 and 254 euros. This means that Gerry and the lawyer spent, at least, more than 400 euros for one night.
According to Clarence Mitchell, Madeleine’s parents’ spokesman, Gerry stayed in a single room and the hotel was chosen not for being five-star, but merely because it is located close to lawyer Rogério Alves’ office and because it is discrete. ‘We didn’t want to transform Gerry’s visit into a media show’.
Concerning the fact that the Fund payed for this, Clarence merely recalled the purpose for which it was created ‘This type of travel obviously fits into the search for Madeleine which is the Fund’s purpose. That was what it was created for and Madeleine’s parents will never use it for anything else apart from that’, he stated.
Beyond that, Mitchell guarantees that the fund to search for the child still has money: ‘We have 800 thousand pounds which are 880.170,36 euros. We don’t have money problems. People continue to help us’. The Fund, which was created in 2007, shortly after Madeleine disappeared from the resort at Praia da Luz, had two million euros at some point in time.
Details
Attorney General – The Attorney General’s Office informed yesterday that the Madeleine process will only be reopened with ‘new, credible and relevant facts’. This is the reply to Gerry, who said that he’d come to Portugal to explore the best way to cooperate with the authorities to ‘explore steps that weren’t taken yet’.
Detectives in the Algarve – The McCanns desisted of hiring agencies, but as far as CM has established, they now have a restricted group of people with a past that is linked to the police, willing to continue the investigation. The possibility of that team going to the Algarve is being evaluated.
source:
Correio da Manhã, 15.01.2009
by astro (
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/)
Link:
http://www.dompedro.com/DomPedro/OurHotels/Lisboa/tabid/287/language/en-US/Default.aspx