Parents of Madeleine McCann confident of their innocence

Photo: Parents of Madeleine McCann confident of their innocence

Madeleine McCann’s father says he and his wife are totally confident of their innocence as they wait to learn whether they will face criminal charges in Portugal.

Portuguese police investigating the British girl's disappearance May 3 from a hotel in southern Portugal say they expect to hand over their files to the prosecutor's office on Tuesday. Police named Kate and Gerry McCann as suspects Friday.

"We have absolute confidence that, when all of the facts are presented together, we will be able to demonstrate that we played absolutely no part in Madeleine's abduction," Gerry McCann wrote late Monday in a blog on www.findmadeleine.com.

Police had hoped to submit their file on Monday, but are now aiming for Tuesday, spokesman Olegario Sousa said. He declined to provide further details, citing Portugal's secrecy law covering ongoing police investigations.

Portimao District Attorney Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses will review the case files which contain details of forensic evidence and police interviews.

Sousa said he believed the prosecutor would quickly decide whether to take action.

Britain's Sky News reported that Portuguese police have found DNA evidence - a full match - indicating that Madeleine's body was in the trunk of a car the McCanns rented five weeks after her disappearance. The station cited unidentified sources. Police would not confirm the report.

Portugal's national police chief Alipio Ribeiro suggested Monday night, however, that the forensic tests had not been conclusive.

"We can't say with certainty whether it was the blood of person 'A' or person 'B,"' Ribeiro told Portuguese state Broadcaster RPT.

"They help guide us in our investigation, but not with the mathematical precision some people are saying," he said.

The McCanns, who returned to Britain on Sunday with their 2-year-old twins, stayed out of sight Monday, avoiding reporters camped outside their home. Both have denied any role in Madeleine's disappearance.

"The pain and turmoil we have experienced in this last week is totally beyond description," Gerry McCann wrote.

"Kate and I are totally 100 percent confident in each other's innocence and our family and friends have rallied round unflinchingly to support us."

The McCanns, who are both medical doctors, have hired a high-profile legal team that includes Michael Caplan, who represented former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet when Spain tried to extradite him from Britain in 1999.

The administrators of a 1 million pound (US$2 million; EUR1.5 million) fund set up to help find Madeleine were investigating whether some of the money could be used to help pay the McCanns' legal bills, Britain's Press Association quoted an unidentified family friend as saying.

Madeleine's disappearance, and her parents' publicity campaign to find her, attracted worldwide attention. The story took a startling twist Friday when Portuguese police formally named them as suspects.

Until Friday, suspicion had centered on Robert Murat, a British man who lived near the hotel from which Madeleine disappeared. He has not been charged, and he has said he is innocent.