A German national, who is being scrutinized concerning the 18-year-old case of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann, was released from jail on Wednesday after completing his term for an unrelated crime, according to police reports.
The individual, identified by media as Christian Brückner, completed a seven-year incarceration following his 2019 conviction for the assault of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal.
On Wednesday morning, a vehicle accompanied by several police vans exited the Sehnde prison near Hannover, northern Germany. Authorities verified that the individual had been released.
In June 2020, German prosecutors revealed they were investigating this person on murder suspicions regarding McCann’s disappearance on May 3, 2007, from a resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. They had assumed the girl to be deceased.
Gerry and Kate McCann, the parents of four-year-old Madeleine McCann, are seen presenting a photo of their daughter during a press conference held in Berlin on Wednesday, June 6, 2007.
AP Photo/Sven Kaestner, File
Authorities have continued their search endeavors in Portugal. However, the suspect, who claims no involvement in her disappearance, hasn’t been formally charged regarding the case. The investigation remains unaffected by his release. He also continues to be a suspect in an inquiry by the UK’s Metropolitan Police into McCann’s disappearance, although he denied their request for an interview.
His lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, has said charges would have been filed against his client long ago if there had been sufficient evidence.
The 48-year-old spent many years in Portugal, including in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.
Investigators in the U.K., Portugal and Germany are still piecing together what happened on the night 3-year-old Madeleine disappeared. She was in the same room as her brother and sister – 2-year-old twins – while their parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.
The suspect was tried last year over several unrelated sexual offenses he was alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017 and was acquitted in October. The presiding judge said the evidence was insufficient for a conviction, that the court heard from unreliable witnesses and that some had been influenced by media reports on the defendant.
The state court in Hildesheim has said it cannot legally disclose whether he will have to fulfill any conditions after his release. But Fülscher confirmed to regional public broadcaster NDR that his client will be required to wear an electronic foot tag, report regularly to probation services and give up his passport. German weekly Der Spiegel first reported on that decision, without naming sources.
He still faces an Oct. 27 court date in Oldenburg in northwestern Germany in a case in which he is accused of insulting a prison employee. A district court in the city sentenced him to six weeks in prison for that, but the defense has appealed.
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