BERLIN – The European court on Thursday issued a ruling that is expected to allow Germany to imprison a new suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British woman who disappeared from a Portuguese beach hotel thirteen years ago.

The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice ruled that German prosecutors had the right to investigate Christian Brueckner for the case, the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal, even though she had been extradited from Italy for trial. for alleged crime.

Although he is a suspect in the McCann case, he has lately been jailed for a separate conviction and prosecutors have stated that they still have sufficient evidence to detain him only in the McCann case.

Brueckner’s attorneys look good on the 2019 rape conviction and seven-year sentence, arguing that since he was extradited on a drug-related warrant, he has not been tried for rape.

Among other things, the European Court held that Italy had agreed to be tried for rape in connection with the extradition process.

The resolution was highly awaited after a legal adviser issued an opinion last month recommending the resolution. It is now up to Germany’s highest criminal court to review the decision before it is final, but it is a formality.

McCann was 3 years old when he disappeared from an apartment in 2007 while his family circle was on vacation on the beach in the city of Praia da Luz in the Portuguese Algarve region.

In June, the German government said it had known the 43-year-old German citizen as a suspect in the case and that they were investigating an alleged murder.

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