The decision, reached last Friday, comes after his arrest last week as his former colleagues drew nearer to concluding an investigation initiated in July 2014 related to a series of criminal charges. Up until last week week, investigations had resulted in the arrest of 12 people, including three PSP police officers.

The Former Polícia Judiciária (PJ) detective and ex-Sporting Vice President Paulo Pereira Cristovão gained international widespread prominence after authoring a book, Estrela da Madeleine (Madeleine’s Star) in which he analyses the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from her holiday apartment almost eight years ago.

Cristovão, also a former president of the Portuguese Association for Missing Children, has been linked to these 12 suspects and is said to have worked at “identifying potential victims who would then be robbed inside their homes. These robberies would be undertaken by police officers simulating house searches, armed with forged legal warrants. On occasion, these searches would be conducted by officers dressed in their respective uniforms”, culminating in robberies, PJ sources said following the announcement of Cristovão’s arrest.