Moita Flores interviews Gonçalo Amaral
TvGuia invited me to interview my former companion in the PJ, and former coordinator of the Maddie case.
He tells why he was the target of lies and how the little girl’s parents concealed the truth.
Moita Flores (MF) - Anyone who reads this conversation on these pages will say: there it is! This guy went to tv to say what the other one told him and it’s going to be difficult to convince the gossipers that we had not spoken to each other for years.
Gonçalo Amaral (GA) - True. The last time that we chatted before I left the PJ, I was stationed in the Azores.
MF - And how are things now? The book that you wrote, “Truth of the Lie”, is out there. You have retired and people are calling for you from all sides…
GA - Don’t even mention it. I’m exhausted. I came to have lunch with you because I had made you a promise, and I’m on my way to Vigo. I know that there are hundreds of persons waiting for me.
MF - Vigo, Madrid…
GA - I also presented the book in Seville and Barcelona, in front of hundreds of readers and the full force of the media.
MF - I read it in El País and I saw you on one or two Spanish tv channels.
GA - Eight tv stations! Can you imagine what that’s like? The whole of the press. I didn’t know where to turn to anymore. Even Hola!…
MF - What about sales? In Portugal, I know it’s selling well. At least in the bookshops where I usually go, I see it listed high in the best-seller lists.
GA - Here we have sold 180 000 copies and we’re rapidly reaching the 200 000 mark. From Spain I have no figures yet, but I know it’s been selling well.
MF - And in England?
GA [laughs] - You’re joking…
MF – I’m serious. It was where your life was most ruined, where you were insulted and defamed…
GA [laughs] - It’s over now… The book will get there, you’ll see…
MF - What about other countries?
GA - It will be published in Italy, in the Netherlands and in Denmark. I’m going over there soon, because the Danish editor has mentioned the possibility of distributing it into Norway and Sweden. We’ll see…
MF - Your determination is to get even with those who worked for the McCanns. They’ve mistreated you.
GA - Believe me, I feel no rage, I’m not even angry. I have understood their game and you also know how this game works. The lies about me, the manipulation is not exactly against the citizen Gonçalo Amaral. They were against the investigator who knew their weaknesses and was going to catch them sooner or later. It was all a matter of time. The McCanns knew that I was going to get them. As you could see, all it took was for the process to be archived in order for everything to be finished. At this moment in time, I’m convinced that they don’t even remember my name anymore. So the game is always the same. We want to catch them, they want to escape, and that’s it. Sometimes the bandits win, sometimes the policemen do. This time around, and concerning this case, it was how it was. They stopped insulting me, they stopped the campaigns to find their daughter, it’s over. They got what they wanted and therefore, peace is back.
MF – And you launch a “grenade” that is called The Truth of the Lie into the midst of that peace. Whoever reads your testimony is left with few doubts about the little girl’s destiny. She died in the apartment.
GA – Do you doubt it?
MF – No. Neither I nor the older people who used to work with me. When this happened, I was in Greece and I heard the news through an English channel. The story was so badly told, that only an ingénue, or a silly person, would believe it. As a matter of fact, when I arrived, I had dinner with several already retired colleagues that worked in homicides, and their opinion was the same. The detail about the window killed the version. Nobody passes through that narrow window space carrying a child.
GA – The window made me doubt. And not only that.
MF – But I do insist on the window. The mother said that she never touched it.
GA – That she never even opened it.
MF – Now, when I read the process, I realized that her fingerprints were on it. And positioned in a manner that coincides with an opening movement.
GA – It was with that, with Kate’s fingerprints on the window that I wanted to catch them.
MF – That’s the truth of the lie.
GA – Among other things. It was one of the best games that I ever saw played out, to divert attention from what really happened in the apartment. The manner in which they “worked” for the Smith was brilliant.
MF – The couple that recognized the father carrying the little girl.
GA – Exactly. It was done in such a manner that at one point in time, it was Gerry himself who informed that someone had witnessed the situation, as if the person that was recognized had been someone else.
MF – Wearing the clothes that the friend mentioned for the photofit.
GA – Precisely.
MF – Do you still drink beer, or did you stop drinking red wine after the news in the English press?
GA [laughs] – I never drank wine. I don’t like red wine.
MF – What really made them mad was being made arguidos.
GA – Now that you know the process, tell me… Under the old Penal Process, how do I ask Kate: “Are you lying when you say you didn’t touch the window? As a matter of fact, it was you who opened the window. We have material evidence of that.” A question like this forces the constitution of arguido because it invades her sphere of constitutional rights. I have to give her the right not to reply, instead of lying. The only solution was to make her an arguida.
MF – Things were different in my time. She would have been under such an attack that before she realized anything, she’d be in jail.
GA – Right, but in your time, in our old times, investigation was made with fuel. Now we all move on honey. Apart from that, this is a process that is uncomfortable for everyone. Nicely archived, nice and quiet, that’s how it looks better. Everyone was happy.
MF – And nobody was tried.
GA – Not yet…
MF – Do you still believe?
GA – It’s too big and too serious a burden to be concealed by so many people for their entire lives.
MF – I also agree with you. Now, tell me. Do we eat grilled squid or do we play the premier league? There is bean and piglet casserole.
GA – You’re crazy. Grilled squid.
MF – I definitely looks like things now move on honey.
GA – We’re too old for such a bean casserole. Today is my birthday and I don’t want to die of overstuffing.
MF – You’re 49 and you say you’re old? What am I then, I’m six “minutes” ahead of you on the scoreboard?! I’m 55, and on the 23rd of February I receive another free one.
GA – Get sensible and order the squid.
MF [speaking to the waiter] – Squid for both of us. Now it’s like in the movies. Bean casseroles are for under 40s only.
source: TvGuia, 17.10.2008, printed edition
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