The major suspect in the case of British child Madeleine McCann kidnap victim, Christian Brückner, was acquitted of many rape and sexual abuse charges unrelated to that case on the basis of alleged crimes spanning from 2000 to 2017 in Portugal. A German court gave this verdict on grounds of lack of evidence and especially doubts over credibility of some of the witnesses. Although he has been acquitted of those crimes, Brückner is serving a seven-year sentence for the rape of another female in the same area of Portugal where the McCann child vanished, committing that crime in 2005.
Brückner is not yet officially charged in the McCann case but remains under investigation. He is said to have filed for an appeal, but prosecutors stated that they will appeal his acquittal last month. In addition, they are also seeking to detain him next year after the expiry of his prison term because efforts are being taken to extend his preventive detention.
This has been a case that continues to attract enormous international interest, not least because of the unresolved disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, which is indeed one of the most followed missing person cases in contemporary history.
