A friend of Kate and Gerry McCann wants to "reveal the whole truth" about the case but is frightened of the couple's political allies, a lawyer claimed yesterday.
One of the so-called Tapas Nine wants to help Portuguese police with the six-month investigation but "feels obliged to keep silent", according to the unnamed legal source.
The lawyer attacked the intervention of "certain politicians" in the case and said they had prejudiced the hunt to discover what really happened to Madeleine McCann.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband both spoke to the couple directly before the McCanns were made official suspects in the case.
Direct contact stopped when they were made arguidos in September but the Premier has been briefed on the case since then and raised it with his Portuguese counterpart last month.
The unnamed lawyer, who claimed to represent one of the Tapas Nine, told the respected Spanish newspaper El Mundo: "My client feels obliged to keep silent about what he can do to help the investigation, and not because of the Portuguese secrecy laws.
"It's not that he is scared of the McCanns, but the economic and political lobby surrounding the couple is truly frightening to anybody. What my client wants is to reveal the whole truth, but he does not mean to accuse or blame anyone, as that is the job of the police.The only thing he wants is to help the police discover the truth about what happened before, during and after that dinner on May 3."
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell branded the report "utter rubbish" and insisted there was no rift between the couple and any of their friends.
He said the seven friends who dined with the McCanns that night only had one lawyer between them, and said he had not made any of the comments. (Daily Mail)
IMO - Opinion
Where's that salt cellar?
