Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are set to re-interview Robert Murat, the British expatriate who was first questioned by police when the three-year-old went missing in 2007.
Murat has been identified as one of four witnesses to whom detectives want to speak after Scotland Yard reopened its investigation into the case.
Speaking to the Guardian from his home in Portugal on Tuesday, Murat said neither he nor his lawyer had been contacted by the police but he would cooperate. “My conscience is clear and I have no problem speaking to police again,” he said.
Asked whether he was concerned about facing yet another interrogation, he replied: “I have more important things to worry about, like running my business, paying my taxes and I also need to paint my house.”
Murat, an IT consultant on the Algarve, was the first person to be declared an arguido, or suspect, during the high-profile police search seven years ago. He was never arrested over Madeleine’s disappearance, and he later won several hundreds of thousands of pounds in libel damages from British newspapers.
A source close to the investigation told the Guardian on Wednesday that Murat had been listed as one of four witnesses by the Metropolitan police.
A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said the force would not give a running commentary on the inquiry.
