'TERRIBLE NEWS' - Chapter 6 of Dr Goncalo Amaral's 'The English Gag', translated specially for The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann
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'TERRIBLE NEWS' - Chapter 6 of Dr Goncalo Amaral's 'The English Gag', translated specially for The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann
by sharonl 18.01.13 0:46
We have received this translation of a small part of Dr Goncalo Amaral's book - and bring it here to remind readers of the forum of the very moment when Dr Goncalo Amaral, in September 2009, learnt that he was being gagged from saying anything about the reported disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Soon afterwards, he discovered that this book was to be banned, and all copies seized by the the McCanns' Portuguese lawyer, Isobel Duarte:
_______________________________________________________________________
Goncalo Amaral relates in ‘The English Gag’ how he found out that his book was about to be banned
Chapter 6 of A Mordaca Inglesa: ‘The English Gag’
Terrible news (translated by BJN)
I became aware that Gerry and Kate McCann had applied for an injunction against me, on behalf of themselves and their three children, at the Lisbon Civil Court. The defendants were me, Guerra e Paz SA, my publishers, Valentim de Carvalho Filmes, a film-producing company, the TV channel TV1 and the entire Portuguese population.
The aim of these proceedings was to censorship of my hypothesis about the disappearance of Madeleine Beth McCann. Above all, it was intended to prevent the translation and publication of my book Maddie - A Verdade da Mentira, ‘The Truth of the Lie’, in the United Kingdom.
Quite frankly, I had not taken that source too seriously, thinking that, if this were true, it would almost certainly be doomed to failure, as a court would, surely, never make a ruling on what opinions could or could not be expressed in Portugal over the disappearance of Madeleine.
Not ever.
I thought it highly likely that the court’s reaction would be to proceed to punish the claimant for frivolous and vexatious litigation, that is, litigation in bad faith, since this legal action had been brought by people whose aim was to abuse the fundamental rights of third parties, by means of launching a claim that was manifestly unfounded.
On a quite modest esplanade, I was sitting waiting for lunch-time to arrive, in order to be able to read the day’s news in the newspapers.
I read one news article which said that ‘the majority’ of the population in the Figueira district of the province of Portimao, where around five years ago little Joana Cipriano was killed by her mother and uncle, believed that she had been ‘sold’.
What did they mean by ‘the majority’ of the population? On what possible basis was this worked out?
My own reflections regarding this affair were about to be rudely interrupted. Domingos, the owner of the establishment, rushed towards me, looking very distressed, saying: ”Goncalo, Goncalo, they were just talking about you on the TV! I didn’t manage to get what they were saying, but it sounds bad!”
I will go back a little in time to the summer of 2008, when the book Maddie - A Verdade da Mentira was published and in Portugal. At that time, the spokesman for the McCann couple, a professional spin doctor named Clarence Mitchell, had lost no time in announcing that legal action would be taken against me.
A long time had passed since then: fourteen months. Now, it was September 2009. There had been no news about the case during these fourteen months in question, except for fourteen months of hearing about the poor service being provided by the McCanns’ private detectives, fourteen months of explanations about their activities which, to say the least, were very odd, and could easily be challenged by any criminal investigator.
I finished drinking my coffee and mineral water and moved off towards the restaurant, where I was going to have lunch.
As I did so, Antonio and Jose Maria, members of staff and Benfica football supporters, , approached me and told me what they had heard on the SIC television channel news.
They told me that a Portuguese court had secretly banned me from speaking about the Maddie Case.
I said: “My friends, you are older than me, and like me, you remember what happened last year. This simply cannot be right!”
It was clear that something was happening and that some court or other had made a ruling that would impact on me in some way. But which court was it? I was only able to find that out later. Apparently, the McCanns had applied for an ex parte injunction. Not only was I not allowed to attend. I wasn’t even told about the application. Later I was to learn that my book had been banned.
I had already been getting fed up with receiving notifications of such matter all the time via the press. Several months earlier, when I had left Oporto to go to Unhais da Serra, I travelled across the Viriathus countryside, following the launch of the book ‘Crime and Justice’, which I had helped to edit. As I was travelling, I heard something about me on the radio. It was Radio Renascena. They had announced on the radio that criminal charges had been brought against me by the Public Ministry.
This was, apparently, the result of legal proceedings following a formal complaint by little Joana’s stepfather in October 2008.
But a full six months earlier, in April 2008, I had initiated a complaint of defamation against the very same citizen himself, and against his peculiar lawyer, Marcos Aragao Correia. My complaint was filed at the Public Ministry, and has yet to be heard.
TO BE CONTINUED
_______________________________________________________________________
Goncalo Amaral relates in ‘The English Gag’ how he found out that his book was about to be banned
Chapter 6 of A Mordaca Inglesa: ‘The English Gag’
Terrible news (translated by BJN)
I became aware that Gerry and Kate McCann had applied for an injunction against me, on behalf of themselves and their three children, at the Lisbon Civil Court. The defendants were me, Guerra e Paz SA, my publishers, Valentim de Carvalho Filmes, a film-producing company, the TV channel TV1 and the entire Portuguese population.
The aim of these proceedings was to censorship of my hypothesis about the disappearance of Madeleine Beth McCann. Above all, it was intended to prevent the translation and publication of my book Maddie - A Verdade da Mentira, ‘The Truth of the Lie’, in the United Kingdom.
Quite frankly, I had not taken that source too seriously, thinking that, if this were true, it would almost certainly be doomed to failure, as a court would, surely, never make a ruling on what opinions could or could not be expressed in Portugal over the disappearance of Madeleine.
Not ever.
I thought it highly likely that the court’s reaction would be to proceed to punish the claimant for frivolous and vexatious litigation, that is, litigation in bad faith, since this legal action had been brought by people whose aim was to abuse the fundamental rights of third parties, by means of launching a claim that was manifestly unfounded.
On a quite modest esplanade, I was sitting waiting for lunch-time to arrive, in order to be able to read the day’s news in the newspapers.
I read one news article which said that ‘the majority’ of the population in the Figueira district of the province of Portimao, where around five years ago little Joana Cipriano was killed by her mother and uncle, believed that she had been ‘sold’.
What did they mean by ‘the majority’ of the population? On what possible basis was this worked out?
My own reflections regarding this affair were about to be rudely interrupted. Domingos, the owner of the establishment, rushed towards me, looking very distressed, saying: ”Goncalo, Goncalo, they were just talking about you on the TV! I didn’t manage to get what they were saying, but it sounds bad!”
I will go back a little in time to the summer of 2008, when the book Maddie - A Verdade da Mentira was published and in Portugal. At that time, the spokesman for the McCann couple, a professional spin doctor named Clarence Mitchell, had lost no time in announcing that legal action would be taken against me.
A long time had passed since then: fourteen months. Now, it was September 2009. There had been no news about the case during these fourteen months in question, except for fourteen months of hearing about the poor service being provided by the McCanns’ private detectives, fourteen months of explanations about their activities which, to say the least, were very odd, and could easily be challenged by any criminal investigator.
I finished drinking my coffee and mineral water and moved off towards the restaurant, where I was going to have lunch.
As I did so, Antonio and Jose Maria, members of staff and Benfica football supporters, , approached me and told me what they had heard on the SIC television channel news.
They told me that a Portuguese court had secretly banned me from speaking about the Maddie Case.
I said: “My friends, you are older than me, and like me, you remember what happened last year. This simply cannot be right!”
It was clear that something was happening and that some court or other had made a ruling that would impact on me in some way. But which court was it? I was only able to find that out later. Apparently, the McCanns had applied for an ex parte injunction. Not only was I not allowed to attend. I wasn’t even told about the application. Later I was to learn that my book had been banned.
I had already been getting fed up with receiving notifications of such matter all the time via the press. Several months earlier, when I had left Oporto to go to Unhais da Serra, I travelled across the Viriathus countryside, following the launch of the book ‘Crime and Justice’, which I had helped to edit. As I was travelling, I heard something about me on the radio. It was Radio Renascena. They had announced on the radio that criminal charges had been brought against me by the Public Ministry.
This was, apparently, the result of legal proceedings following a formal complaint by little Joana’s stepfather in October 2008.
But a full six months earlier, in April 2008, I had initiated a complaint of defamation against the very same citizen himself, and against his peculiar lawyer, Marcos Aragao Correia. My complaint was filed at the Public Ministry, and has yet to be heard.
TO BE CONTINUED
sharonl- Forum Owner
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Re: 'TERRIBLE NEWS' - Chapter 6 of Dr Goncalo Amaral's 'The English Gag', translated specially for The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann
by aiyoyo 18.01.13 1:05
I wish the English Gag, along with The Truth of The Lie, would be out in English version in the UK.
Fingers crossed. Surely if Mccanns are caving in on team Amaral's term then they can't be allowed to ban the Books in UK.
Fingers crossed. Surely if Mccanns are caving in on team Amaral's term then they can't be allowed to ban the Books in UK.
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Re: 'TERRIBLE NEWS' - Chapter 6 of Dr Goncalo Amaral's 'The English Gag', translated specially for The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann
by Tony Bennett 18.01.13 1:22
Always assuming that the often-wrong 'blacksmith' is right on this occasion...aiyoyo wrote:I wish the English Gag, along with The Truth of The Lie, would be out in English version in the UK.
Fingers crossed. Surely if McCanns are caving in on Team Amaral's terms, then they can't be allowed to ban the Books in UK.
____________________
Dr Martin Roberts: "The evidence is that these are the pjyamas Madeleine wore on holiday in Praia da Luz. They were photographed and the photo handed to a press agency, who released it on 8 May, as the search for Madeleine continued. The McCanns held up these same pyjamas at two press conferences on 5 & 7June 2007. How could Madeleine have been abducted?"
Amelie McCann (aged 2): "Maddie's jammies!".
Tony Bennett- Investigator
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Re: 'TERRIBLE NEWS' - Chapter 6 of Dr Goncalo Amaral's 'The English Gag', translated specially for The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann
by Guest 18.01.13 5:40
Tony Bennett wrote:Always assuming that the often-wrong 'blacksmith' is right on this occasion...aiyoyo wrote:I wish the English Gag, along with The Truth of The Lie, would be out in English version in the UK.
Fingers crossed. Surely if McCanns are caving in on Team Amaral's terms, then they can't be allowed to ban the Books in UK.
Dear mr. Bennett,
Yes, let's assume just that. He has been spot on most of the time.
Dear mr. Bennett, my heart goes out to you, and I again advise you to concentrate solely on what really matters: preparing for your day in Court. You have way too much at stake not to do that.
The McCs (or is it only the missus these days now?) for obvious reasons cannot possibly offer to settle with you too, in their feeding grounds the UK, you know.
Dear John, I adore you, but Tony-bashing was a waste of your time and therefore beneath you and your audience. No more squabbling from now on, pray? United we stand, divided we fall, remember?
Guest- Guest
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