Madeleine suspect ‘made most’ of open European borders to escape justice

German’s lawyers say jail term for rape of woman, 72, should be overturned on a technical point

THE German suspect in the Madeleine Mccann case was able to “make the most of open European borders” despite committing various crimes and “flouting the rules”, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has heard.

Christian Brückner was last month named as the prime suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine, which the German authorities are treating as a murder investigation.

The 43-year-old is in prison in Germany after being convicted in December of violently raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia de Luz in 2005 – two years before Madeleine went missing in the same Portuguese village. Yesterday, Brückner’s lawyers appeared at the ECJ in Luxembourg to argue that his seven-year sentence for the rape should be overturned and he should be released from prison. They claim the conviction breaches international law because it was not the crime he was extradited for, as the German authorities originally brought him back on child molestation and drug charges.

The legal appeal relates to a technical point under EU arrest warrant law, with Brückner’s defence team arguing that Germany needed Portugal’s explicit consent to extradite him for one crime and then try him for another.

The five ECJ judges from the hearing will give their decision in the coming weeks on whether the conviction should be quashed. If they side with Brückner, who was not in court yesterday to hear the legal arguments, he could be released immediately.

Representing the German state, Felix Halabi, a lawyer, told the ECJ that Brückner’s legal argument was “devoid of sense”, adding: “The suspect made the most of open European borders and now he wants us to read the law in such a way it gets turned on its head to give him an advantage in court.”

Mr Halabi said that Brückner “flouted the rules” by leaving Germany while on probation after he was released from prison in August 2018 for sexually abusing a child. The ECJ heard how Brückner left the country to travel to Italy via the Netherlands because he “wanted to go on holiday”, Friedrich Fülscher, his lawyer, said.

When he arrived in Italy, he was subject to a second European arrest warrant for drugs offences from 2011 but, upon returning to Germany, he was put on trial for the rape. Mr Fulscher argued that this was “unconstitutional”.

According to EU law, people extradited by a member state through an arrest warrant may not be prosecuted for a previous crime “other than that which is the basis of the surrender”.

The ECJ will hand down an initial non-binding opinion on Brückner’s appeal on Aug 6, while the court’s legally binding ruling will be delivered later.