Unterdenteppichgekehrt: Presumption of Innocence

Presumption of Innocence

I have been asked many times the question why I don't respect the presumption of innocence in this case, especially by people that know me and my usual respect for human rights. It is not easy to explain.

From the time the news broke in May 2007 until the release of the police files, I had been very much a fence-sitter trying mostly to shed some light onto the hundreds of conflicting news reports. At that time I even was posting under the name Impartial on the Mirror forum and 3As. I could see the discrepancies, the changes to their statements via the media but I could also see two people devastated by the loss of their daughter.

During these months I kept the presumption of innocence high. Even though suspicions became stronger by the day it was my private opinion that even if there had been a terrible accident and the parents had somehow felt the need to cover-up her death in order to avoid repercussions to their other children, the children in the group, their jobs and reputation it was up to the law to investigate, charge, judge and sentence those responsible for it.

This still would be my stance today had it all stopped there. Had there not been added crimes to the original crime. Additional crimes that would never get followed up if the original crime would not be solved.

The crime of fraud for one. Taking money from schoolchildren, old age pensioners and well-meaning mothers. And not to be invested into a fake search for the missing child but very explicitly invested into the build-up of a defense wall that would avoid the proper prosecution of the original crime. Cheating the course of law if you like.

But it was the crime of deliberately casting wrong suspicions on another person that then caused me to drop my caution and restraint. The way in which Robert Murat had been set up by four of the friends of the McCanns, how his life and that of his mother and fiance had been shredded to pieces only because he was "too" helpful, happened to live in the direction of Jane's concocted sighting and coincidentally was also the person to translate the important statements of Dianne Webster and the nannies was my breaking point. In order to get justice for this crime the first one would have to be cleared up. Otherwise there would never be evidence of this follow-up crime. Compensation money by a paper that had been a victim itself was not a substitute for good old proper justice.

Last but not least it was the parents' atrocious treatment of the one man who had committed himself to finding out what had happened to their daughter: Goncalo Amaral

The vicious, vindictive, hate-filled persecution and destruction of another good man was the last straw that changed my view about a highly cherished good, the presumption of innocence. The law is clear, and no mere mortal can change it, but on this blog it was cast aside after the evaluation of the evidence of the police files to express the desire for the truth to be revealed, to put a stop to the never-ending destruction of people and the creation of a parallel universe built on lies and deception.

Eingestellt von Johanna

http://unterdenteppichgekehrt.blogspot.com/2014/06/presumption-of-innocence.html?spref=tw