A German being investigated for the disappearance of the British girl Madeleine McCann, 18 years ago, was released from prison on Wednesday (17) after serving a sentence in an unreed case, police said.
The man, identified by the media as Christian Brueckner, was sentenced to seven years in prison, resulting from a 2019 conviction for the rape of a 72 -year -old American woman in Portugal.
He left jail in Sehnde, northern Germany, on the morning of Wednesday.
In June 2020, German prosecutors said he was being investigated on suspicion of murder in connection with McCann’s disappearance on May 3, 2007, from an apartment complex at Praia da Luz’s Portuguese resort. The authorities said they assumed the girl was dead.
Since then, . But the suspect, who denied any involvement in her disappearance, was not indicted in the case.
The investigation is not affected by its release. He also remains suspicious in the investigation into McCann’s disappearance conducted by the UK Metropolitan Police ,.
His lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, claims that the accusations against the suspect would have been made a long time ago if there was enough evidence.
The 48 -year -old man spent many years in Portugal, including at the Algarve Resort of Praia da Luz, at the time of the disappearance.
Investigators in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Germany continue to investigate. She was in the same room as her brother and sister – 2 -year -old twins – while her parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends in a nearby restaurant.
The suspect was tried last year by several unrecognized sexual crimes, which he would have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017, and was acquitted in October.
The President Judge said the evidence was insufficient for a conviction, that the court listened to non -reliable witnesses and that some of them were influenced by media reports over the defendant.
The Hildesheim State Court said it cannot legally disclose if it will have to comply with any condition after its release.
But Fülscher confirmed to the NDR regional public broadcaster that his client will be required to use an electronic label on his foot, regularly attend the parole and deliver his passport services. German magazine Der Spiegel was the first to report this decision without citing sources.
He will still have to attend the court on October 27 in Oldenburg, in northwestern Germany, in a case in which he is accused of insulting a prison official. A district court of the city sentenced him to six weeks in prison for this, but the defense appealed.
