{"id":101340,"date":"2025-08-29T17:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101340\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:43:09","slug":"madeleine-mccann-suspect-to-be-released-from-german-jail-in-less-than-three-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101340\/","title":{"rendered":"Madeleine McCann suspect to be released from German jail in less than three weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathryn ArmstrongBBC News<\/p>\n

\"ReutersReuters<\/p>\n

Christian Br\u00fcckner is still dangerous, the lead prosecutor in the case believes<\/p>\n

German investigators’ prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be released from prison in a matter of weeks, local authorities have confirmed.<\/p>\n

Christian Br\u00fcckner, who is serving a sentence in northern Germany for a rape conviction, will be released by 17 September at the latest, the lead prosecutor investigating the toddler’s disappearance told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Hans Christian Wolters also said that he believed the 48-year-old German national was dangerous but that the current legal situation meant he must be released from prison without delay.<\/p>\n

Br\u00fcckner has never been charged with any crime in relation to Madeleine’s disappearance and denies any involvement. <\/p>\n

The then-three-year-old vanished from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on 3 May 2007, sparking a Europe-wide investigation that has become one of the highest-profile missing persons cases.<\/p>\n

Madeleine’s parents had been dining with friends at a restaurant a short walk away while their daughter and her younger twin siblings were asleep in the ground-floor apartment.<\/p>\n

They had checked in on the children periodically until her mother, Kate, discovered she was missing at around 22:00 local time. <\/p>\n

The case remains unsolved, but German prosecutors have pointed to evidence suggesting Br\u00fcckner may have been in the area when Madeleine disappeared.<\/p>\n

Mr Wolters said that while he and other prosecutors did not believe they had enough evidence to formally charge Br\u00fcckner in relation to the McCann case, their efforts would continue. <\/p>\n

Br\u00fcckner “is not just our number one suspect, he’s the only suspect”, he said. “There is no-one else.”<\/p>\n

“We have evidence which speaks against [Br\u00fcckner], which indicates that he is responsible for the disappearance and the death of Madeleine McCann,” he said. <\/p>\n

“We haven’t found anything in the last five years that exonerates [him]. We found evidence that strengthens our case. But in our view it’s not strong enough to make a guilty verdict likely, and that’s why so far we couldn’t charge him or apply for an arrest warrant.”<\/p>\n

Due to differences in legal systems, German authorities suspect Br\u00fcckner of murder in relation to Madeleine McCann, while British police continue to treat her disappearance as a missing persons case.<\/p>\n

\"Hans<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters says efforts are ongoing to build up the case against Br\u00fcckner<\/p>\n

The prosecutor – who has led German efforts to solve Madeleine’s disappearance since they announced that Br\u00fcckner was their prime suspect in 2020 – added that an expert had recently assessed Br\u00fcckner as a danger to society.<\/p>\n

“You have to expect [Br\u00fcckner] to commit further crimes.”<\/p>\n

As a result, prosecutors were applying for restrictions to be placed on him when he is released – including fitting him with an ankle tag, Mr Wolters said. These conditions will be decided by a court hearing that will not be open to the public.<\/p>\n

Madeleine’s disappearance was initially investigated by Portuguese authorities, before German prosecutors took the lead. Portuguese authorities have also named Br\u00fcckner as a formal suspect, or “arguido”.<\/p>\n

Br\u00fcckner, who spent many years of his life in the Algarve, was a drifter, a petty criminal and a convicted sex offender. He has several previous convictions, including for sexually abusing children in 1994 and 2016.<\/p>\n

He is known to have spent time in the same part of Portugal between 2000 and 2017. German prosecutors have linked his mobile phone data and a car sale to their case against him.<\/p>\n

Br\u00fcckner is currently imprisoned for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005.<\/p>\n

\"HandoutHandout<\/p>\n

Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, then aged three<\/p>\n

Portuguese and German police conducted a fresh search in June<\/a> of land between where the McCanns had been staying and addresses linked to Br\u00fcckner, but this yielded no breakthroughs.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Wolters said items that were seized during the search were still being analysed. <\/p>\n

He said he understood the ongoing investigation by prosecutors in the northern German city of Braunschweig could have lost credibility after five years of inquiries with seemingly no tangible results. <\/p>\n

“I can only ask for your understanding that we would certainly not have positioned ourselves so clearly five years ago if we only had hot air.”<\/p>\n

The German prosecutor said he had not ruled out further searches.<\/p>\n

Last year, Br\u00fcckner was cleared by a German court of rape and sexual abuse<\/a> in an unrelated trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kathryn ArmstrongBBC News Reuters Christian Br\u00fcckner is still dangerous, the lead prosecutor in the case believes German investigators’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-101340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}