'We will never give up': Maddie McCann's parents still not cleared over her disappearance

Madeleine McCann’s parents have banned their Portuguese lawyer from talking to the media after a judge told them they still hadn’t been cleared over their daughter’s 2007 disappearance.

After learning they were still persons of interest in their daughter’s disappearance, Kate and Gerry McCann told their attorney, Isabel Duarte, “don’t say anything”.

The sudden media blackout comes just one month after the couple lost their nine-year civil battle against ex-cop Goncalo Amaral, who had led the inquiry into the child's disappearance in Praia da Luz in southern Portugal.

“We received instructions from the clients not to make any declaration or give public information about the file against Mr Amaral or the case itself," Ms Duarte said.

The McCanns sued Mr Amaral over his 2008 book "The Truth of the Lie" that implied the parents covered up their daughter’s disappearance.

It is understood that Mr Amaral profited more than $560,000 from his tell-all book before it was eventually banned and production was terminated.

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After 14 months of controversial investigations which saw Madeleine's parents interrogated and Mr Amaral sacked, Portuguese police closed the case in 2008 before reopening it five years later.

British police opened their own inquiry in July 2013, but excavations in Praia da Luz yielded no evidence.

Mrs McCann has publicly maintained that she believes her daughter is still alive despite nearly a decade passing since her disappearance.

“I’ve always said Praia da Luz is the place where I feel closest to her,” she said in 2016.

“That’s where she last was and I don’t think she’s been taken a million miles from there.

“We will never give up. You couldn’t settle if you thought about giving up."

Under British law, after seven years if a person is still missing and there has been no sight or contact with them, they are presumed dead, however Maddie's parents remain adamant their daughter is still alive until it is proved otherwise.