Portuguese judicial authorities say there is no new evidence to warrant re-investigation despite call from Met to reopen inquiry
Composite image showing Madeleine McCann at age four and with age progression as she might look now. Photograph: Teri Blythe/Metropolitan Police/PA
The Portuguese attorney general has appeared to rule out reopening the Madeleine McCann case despite a call to do so from Scotland Yard.
A statement from his office said that until now it has not been necessary to reopen the case. It added: "As it has always been said, the public ministry [Portugal's body of independent public prosecutors] will only open the case if new, credible and relevant facts arise, and not more hypotheses or speculations."
The response was the first from the Portuguese judicial authorities since senior Scotland Yard detectives made clear on Wednesday that they wanted the investigation into her disappearance reopened.
DCI Andy Redwood, who is leading an investigative review of all the evidence in the case, said his team was developing "genuinely new information" and that colleagues in Portugal who are part of a police review team based in Oporto, were of the same mind as him that the case should be reopened. He said that, from the material his team were seeing, he believed there was a possibility Madeleine could be alive and referred to cases in which children have been abducted and discovered alive many years later.
Next week will mark five years since Madeleine went missing from her family's Algarve holiday flat as her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dined nearby.
There have been hundreds of possible sightings of the girl since she vanished, but each one has come to nothing.
The Portuguese statement came after family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the McCanns were "hugely encouraged" by the recent momentum in the case. Kate McCann was said to be particularly pleased with the a new image of Madeleine, depicting how she might look now, believing it had a strong family resemblance.
Referring to the police's view that they have 195 potential new leads, Mitchell told BBC Breakfast: "Kate and Gerry welcome this and they are hugely encouraged by what the police have been doing all of this last year since the launch of the investigative review. They [Scotland Yard] believe that it is quite possible that Madeleine could still be alive and that is what Kate and Gerry have said throughout the five years and they are hugely encouraged by all of this momentum in the case."
He said that, like the British police, the McCanns want the case to be reopened. But he added such a move was "up to the Portuguese authorities".
Redwood confirmed that his team of more than 30 officers had been to Portugal seven times, including a visit to the family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz.
An investigative review was launched last year after a meeting between former Met commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and the Home Office.
Detectives in Portugal are also understood to want the case reopened but to do so they must gain judicial approval via the courts.
Redwood's team have uncovered 195 investigative opportunities and have carried out a forensic analysis of the timeline of the child's disappearance to establish the windows of opportunity in which she could have been abducted.
He made a public appeal for anyone with any information to contact the police:
Potential witnesses are urged to call 0800 096 1011 within the UK or +44 207 1580 126 from outside. Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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