A Portuguese lawyer defending Robert Murat, a formal suspect in the
Madeleine McCann case, insists that Murat never met Kate and Gerry McCann
before their daughter disappeared.

PRAIA DA LUZ, PORTUGAL (MAY 2, 2008) REUTERS -

The lawyer of Robert Murat, a British formal suspect in the
investigation of Madeleine McCann's disappearance said on Friday (May 2) that
his client is awaiting clearance from the Portuguese police.
    "He is still a defendant in this case, we are hoping for a quick
decision of the prosecutor's office and we are hoping that that decision is to
clear Robert of this investigation so he can keep on with his life,"
Portuguese lawyer Francisco Pagarette said, adding that Murat never met
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann before May 3, 2007.
    "He has no theory about that. He never met them so there is
nothing he can say. People that think that, if there is someone thinking that,
well why don't they ask the McCann couple if they ever knew Robert before this
because Robert never knew them before," he said.
   Murat often spoke to reporters in the days just after the disappearance
of Madeleine, saying she looked like his daughter in England.
   Asked about Murat's whereabouts as the anniversary of Maddy's
disappearance approaches, Pagarette said his client was out of town.
   "He doesn't accept any interviews and he doesn't want to talk to
the press because of the way he was treated by some of the press in the
beginning. Things that were written and said about him and that hurt him very
much him and his family. And he thinks that they don't, he doesn't want to
speak anymore while this case is going on because that it could be that some
word can be taken out of context and there could be made a story where there
is no story," he said.
    Portuguese police identified Murat as a suspect, nine days after the
girl's disappearance.  Police searched his villa, which was close to the
complex from where the toddler went missing as her parents dined in a nearby
tapas bar.