Christian Brückner, the German main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine ‘Maddie’ McCann in 2007, may be released early. Formally, the forties is not yet accused of the disappearance and possible death of the British toddler (3).
Brückner is still a prison sentence in his native Germany until September 2025 for the rape of an American 72-year-old woman in Portugal. Those facts date from 2005 in Praia da Luz, the place where Maddie McCann also disappeared. He received a seven -year prison sentence for this in 2019.
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Last year he was on trial for several charges of rape and child abuse, committed between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal. Among other things, he was accused of raping a travel organizer in 2004. He would also have shown himself naked several times to minor girls. One of those facts, on a 10-year-old German girl, happened in April 2007, shortly before Maddie’s disappearance. The Regional Court of Braunschweig spoke to him in October 2024 for all charges, after which the public prosecutor appealed against the acquittal, which may lead to a new process. A decision about this has not yet been made.
Apart from this, the fact that Brückner has already served and attempts to be released early for more than three fourth of his prison sentence. A German criminal court court will judge behind closed doors. If he turns the light on green, the lawyers of Maddie McCann’s parents will appeal against this. Another criminal court must then judge.
One of Brückner’s lawyers, Philipp Marquort, said earlier that his client is considering leaving his native country and moving to a country ‘such as Suriname’, which has no extradition treaty with Germany or the United Kingdom.
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