Dr Amaral's Defence Funds

What an interesting response! Talk about taking the moral high ground. Sorry sweeping the moral high ground. Meanwhile in a galaxy far far away a fund remains open. Go GA!

chilli wrote:What an interesting response! Talk about taking the moral high ground. Sorry sweeping the moral high ground. Meanwhile in a galaxy far far away a fund remains open. Go GA!

My thoughts exactly, chilli. What an example that gentleman continues to be.

Fund now at £51,000 I think there may be a last minute surge before the fund closes

PJGA updated their announcement today.
Same link as in Freedom's post.

Just read Jill Haverns comment - 4 hours ago. Asking Dr Amaral to read various threads on CMoMM with Smithman being one of them?

Inca wrote:Fund now at £51,000  I think there may be a last minute surge before the fund closes

Someone has just donated £1000.

Brill news

Plus PJGA had direct Paypall donations at approx. € 6,000 plus transfers directly into the bank account, so total might well be around + 60,000 :-)

So good to see that so many people put their money where their mouth is ...

Great News fund now over £52,000



Mari Welzel ‏@umweltbuerger · 9m9 minutes ago
@justice4maddie The fund now stands at an amazing ~~ £52,180 ~~ for GA @k1482

Posted by portugalpress on October 22, 2015

Amaral supporters call time as appeal fund approaches €70,000

For reasons that are remaining very quiet, the friends and supporters of former “Maddie cop” Gonçalo Amaral have called time on the gofundme online appeal set up to fund his legal expenses as he challenges the court decision ordering him to pay the parents of Madeleine McCann over €500,000 in damages.
The Legal Defence for Gonçalo Amaral page will be closing on Wednesday, October 28. At time of writing, it had already raised over €69,860 and donations were still coming in.
The latest, as of lunchtime today (Thursday), was for €100. Over the last five months, 2,757 people have responded to the gofundme campaign, set up by a young single mother from Birmingham who was only 14 when Madeleine went missing. Leanne Baulch, 22, explained to us back in May that she had never imagined the response her initiative received, but she felt compelled to do it as she was “desperate to help” a man she felt was being “persecuted”. But as the money flowed in, so too did the unpleasantness, including slurs in the British press that the fund was powered by “sick online trolls”. With Ms Baulch considering her position as a single parent of a toddler, she removed herself from the process altogether a few months ago. The fund then transferred into the hands of the friends of the former PJ detective whose book, “A Verdade da Mentira”, landed him in the hot seat of litigation - with all his assets, including bank accounts “frozen” - in 2008. Unpleasantness appears nonetheless to have continued, with internet manipulation of the appeal’s online code so that a few weeks ago, it virtually disappeared from sight (see http://portugalresident.com/online-intrigue-as-mccanns-close-twitter-pag...).

Now those in charge of the fund have decided it should close. Using the headline “Sufficient” - which translated into Portuguese also stands for “Enough” - they have said: “We believe that it is time to close the gofundme page, as the bank account currently stands at an amount that seems largely sufficient to face eventual future expenses”. A source has confirmed to the Resident that other forms of fundraising remain open, while Amaral’s fundraisers are aware that whatever the result of the latest appeal being considered by Lisbon’s Appellate Court, litigation will continue. “If Amaral is successful, for example, we remain fairly certain that the McCann’s would appeal that decision. And so it continues. The next step would be the Supreme Court and then after that the Constitutional Court”. And should Amaral lose the fight which he feels centres on his right to freedom of expression then a new online appeal will be needed to fund a case against Portuguese justice in the European Court of Human Rights. Thus, for now, it is a case of “serenely awaiting” the next judicial decision, while Amaral’s supporters are no less determined to keep funding avenues open. Sending out the latest message to subscribers, the group of friends writing collectively said: “May we use this moment to wholeheartedly thank those who have expressed their support for Gonçalo Amaral’s right to an appropriate defence. Whether you have contributed financially or by sending a support message, you have made an impact. You have made a difference”. As we wrote this article, yet another donation was received as the six-day countdown to closure begins. Meantime, fund organisers continue to confirm that they will donate any money left unused on legal expenses to a Portuguese children’s charity.

natasha.donn@algarveresident.com


http://portugalresident.com/amaral-supporters-call-time-as-appeal-fund-approaches-%E2%82%AC70000




Strange start to the article....... 'for reasons that remain very quiet' - eh what does that mean

I wouldn't read too much into that, Candyfloss.
It's clear to me, they have enough money to support Dr. Amaral. Should he win, yet the McCanns appeal to High Court and eventually European Court, they may start asking for money again.

However, in my book, it's reasonable that "history will repeat itself", in that the decision of the Court of Appeal and the High Court will mirror the decisions of a couple of years ago. Fingers crossed, though. One never can be sure ...

Perhaps it means he has his appeal date and it starts sometime shortly after 28th?

While I respect the motives behind closing the Go Fund Me page, I can't help but feel this is premature given the vast number of appeals the case is still likely to go through. Also, I think it acts as a marvellous counterbalance to any tasteless McCann-related PR activity. Every time people see a unbalanced newspaper article that trolls ordinary people, or photos of Kate indulging in a charidee PR exercise, Goncalo's legal fund ends up several thousand pounds to the good.
While the Go Fund Me figure stands – and keeps getting larger – it acts as a constant reminder of the high level of public distaste surrounding this case, which news outlets would to well to observe. So while it's commendable that they are not asking for more money than they need (though if this is the case, I can't understand why they keep the Paypal fund open), those donating are aware that any unused money will be going to a children's charity, and they're happy with that decision.
I'm sure the McCanns are delighted by the closure of the Go Fund Me page, though.

Would it be that he doesn't want his business known i.e. exactly how much has been contributed? Lets face it, it would seem there is some powerful people at play here.  I'd imagine that many contributors would rather do so discretely through PayPal ...or at least I'm hoping!

Popcorn wrote:While I respect the motives behind closing the Go Fund Me page, I can't help but feel this is premature given the vast number of appeals the case is still likely to go through. Also, I think it acts as a marvellous counterbalance to any tasteless McCann-related PR activity. Every time people see a unbalanced newspaper article that trolls ordinary people, or photos of Kate indulging in a charidee PR exercise, Goncalo's legal fund ends up several thousand pounds to the good.
While the Go Fund Me figure stands – and keeps getting larger – it acts as a constant reminder of the high level of public distaste surrounding this case, which news outlets would to well to observe. So while it's commendable that they are not asking for more money than they need (though if this is the case, I can't understand why they keep the Paypal fund open), those donating are aware that any unused money will be going to a children's charity, and they're happy with that decision.
I'm sure the McCanns are delighted by the closure of the Go Fund Me page, though.

i also think it was a bit prem, but hopefully he will have enough money left over to start suing the msm and will get some compo for that for any more court cases?

Fund page now gone and closed. Well done to all!


Pamalam-Gerrys Blogs ‏@JustPamalam · 12m12 minutes ago
#McCann Legal Defence for Goncalo #Amaral Donation: All Comments 01 to 2814

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/_gafundComments.htm …

Laura wrote:

Popcorn wrote:While I respect the motives behind closing the Go Fund Me page, I can't help but feel this is premature given the vast number of appeals the case is still likely to go through. Also, I think it acts as a marvellous counterbalance to any tasteless McCann-related PR activity. Every time people see a unbalanced newspaper article that trolls ordinary people, or photos of Kate indulging in a charidee PR exercise, Goncalo's legal fund ends up several thousand pounds to the good.
While the Go Fund Me figure stands – and keeps getting larger – it acts as a constant reminder of the high level of public distaste surrounding this case, which news outlets would to well to observe. So while it's commendable that they are not asking for more money than they need (though if this is the case, I can't understand why they keep the Paypal fund open), those donating are aware that any unused money will be going to a children's charity, and they're happy with that decision.
I'm sure the McCanns are delighted by the closure of the Go Fund Me page, though.

i also think it was a bit prem, but hopefully he will have enough money left over to start suing the msm and will get some compo for that for any more court cases?

I think it closes because of the changed policy of go-fund-me.
They decided not to do 'legal defense' anymore.

parapono

Are you sure about the change of policy?

Justice can be expensive. Shocking if innocent people cannot raise funds to clear their names.

Antonia wrote:

parapono wrote:

Laura wrote:

Popcorn wrote:While I respect the motives behind closing the Go Fund Me page, I can't help but feel this is premature given the vast number of appeals the case is still likely to go through. Also, I think it acts as a marvellous counterbalance to any tasteless McCann-related PR activity. Every time people see a unbalanced newspaper article that trolls ordinary people, or photos of Kate indulging in a charidee PR exercise, Goncalo's legal fund ends up several thousand pounds to the good.
While the Go Fund Me figure stands – and keeps getting larger – it acts as a constant reminder of the high level of public distaste surrounding this case, which news outlets would to well to observe. So while it's commendable that they are not asking for more money than they need (though if this is the case, I can't understand why they keep the Paypal fund open), those donating are aware that any unused money will be going to a children's charity, and they're happy with that decision.
I'm sure the McCanns are delighted by the closure of the Go Fund Me page, though.

i also think it was a bit prem, but hopefully he will have enough money left over to start suing the msm and will get some compo for that for any more court cases?

I think it closes because of the changed policy of go-fund-me.
They decided not to do 'legal defense' anymore.

parapono

Are you sure about the change of policy?

Justice can be expensive. Shocking if innocent people cannot raise funds to clear their names.

Yes, I'm sure.
Their decision was related to that 'gay-cake-refusing-bakery' case in which go-fund-me was used.

AFAIK GoFundMe policy was to refuse:

* Campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful or sexual acts


This has recently been changed to:
quote

April 29, 2015
Protecting Our Community

Today we’re updating our terms to help address some confusion around how GoFundMe goes about reviewing campaigns and deciding what will be permitted on our platform.

Specifically, we would like to clarify that GoFundMe relies on information from law enforcement and government agencies to help determine what actions our team will take regarding questionable campaigns. We would also like to acknowledge that while we cannot conduct in-depth investigations on every campaign that is created, we do reserve the right to act on pertinent information as it becomes available to us.

GoFundMe will not allow campaigns that benefit individuals or groups facing formal charges or claims of serious violations of the law. The amended term can be found under the ‘What’s Not Allowed’ section of our terms, as well as below:

Campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts

We are also informing users that GoFundMe reserves the right to share the content from a deleted campaign with law enforcement, donors or stated beneficiaries who wish to file a police report about any misuse of fundraising proceeds. The added language can be found below:

By using GoFundMe, Users are representing and warranting that all donations received are being given and being used solely for the purpose(s) stated within the content of the User’s campaign.  We reserve the right to provide information relating to your campaign with donors and beneficiaries of your campaign, and with law enforcement or to assist in any investigation.

GoFundMe is home to millions of uplifting and inspiring fundraising campaigns. As we grow, our team will continue to optimize our processes and revise our terms in the ways we determine are best suited for our platform.

Thank you,
-The GoFundMe Team
unquote

ETA PJGA has clearly and publicly announced WHY and WHEN the GoFundMe account was going to be closed. And it as obviously nothing to do with a changed GoFundMe policy ...