Portuguese authorities have named German national Christian Brueckner a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann.

Brueckner, 44, is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence in Germany for raping an elderly American woman in 2005, as CrimeOnline has previously reported.

The Portuguese Public Ministry in the district of Faro, where Maddie and her family were vacationing when the little girl was kidnapped, said Thursday that it had “appointed” a suspect in the kidnapping, although it did not specifically name Brueckner.

The Daily News reported that a release from the ministry said it had formally named a suspect at the request of German authorities in the interests of “international judicial cooperation.”

Maddie McCann disappeared on the night of May 3, 2007, from a vacation rental in Praia da Luz, Algarve, while her parents were next door at a restaurant. The little girl was never found, but a prosecutor in Braunschweig, Germany, has been pursuing a case against Brueckner since June 2020. Although no charges have been filed, the prosecutor said he had uncovered evidence that put Brueckner — identified as “Christian B.” because of German laws governing the naming of suspects — in Praia da Luz at the time of Maddie’s disappearance.

Brueckner also faces charges of raping a 20-year-old German woman in the Algarve in 2005, three years before Maddie McCann disappeared.

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