British detectives searching for Madeleine McCann have submitted a further formal request to the Portuguese authorities.
Police officers working at Scotland Yard on Operation Grange are preparing to return to the Algarve in September in what has been described by media as a last ditch attempt to discover the truth by interviewing a full list of suspects identified as potentially important to the case.
The Portuguese authorities have confirmed that a rogatory letter has been received. From past performance, it could take months for the request to be processed and permission given to the British police again to work on Portuguese soil.
"The contents of the letter [sent to us by the British authorities] is classified, we have no comment to make on the matter," said a source from the office of the Attorney General in Portugal, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
Excavations were carried out in three open areas near Praia da Luz where Madeleine disappeared but they revealed nothing of interest.
British police officers were able to interview four ‘persons of interest’ identified by their mobile phone records to have been in the resort area at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.
Madeleine McCann disappeared in May 2007 from the room where she slept with her younger twin brothers in an apartment at a tourist resort in Praia da Luz in the Algarve.
