Arrest warrant for Madeleine McCann suspect lifted

An arrest warrant for a man who is also suspected in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann has been lifted by a German court as part of an ongoing trial for several unrelated sex offences he allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

However, the 47-year-old German, identified by media as Christian Bruckner, will remain in prison as he is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape committed in Portugal in 2005.

The Brunswick state court said it had lifted the arrest warrant in the current case – in which Bruckner is charged with three counts of rape and two counts of child sexual abuse – because there was no urgent suspicion, German news agency dpa reported.

The suspect has not been charged in the Madeleine McCann case, in which he is being investigated on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine's disappearance in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.

In the ongoing trial, prosecutors have alleged that at an unspecified time between 2000 and 2006, the suspect tied up and raped an elderly woman at her holiday apartment in Portugal. He allegedly beat the victim repeatedly with a whip and videotaped the incident.

During the same period, he allegedly tied a German-speaking girl aged at least 14 to a wooden post in the living room of his residence in Praia da Luz, beat her with a whip and forced her to perform oral sex.

Bruckner's lawyers, however, filed a motion to quash the arrest warrant during the trial, as they saw no reason to do so after evidence of the alleged crimes had been collected in court. The court ruled that there was no “serious suspicion” regarding all charges, dpa reported.

The verdict in the ongoing trial is expected in the fall.

The case of Madeleine McCann has attracted worldwide interest for several years, with reports of sightings of her as far away as Australia, as well as a series of books and television documentaries about the case.