Madeleine murder suspect loses latest round of his rape appeal
● Accused convicted of raping OAP in resort where Madeleine went missing
Them an suspected of murdering Madeleine McCann has lost the latest battle in an appeal to over turn a conviction for rape.
German investigators believe that Christian Brueckner, 43, killed Madeleine, who was then aged three, after abducting her from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
He is currently serving a prison sentence in Germ any for drug trafficking and is appealing against a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-yearold American woman in the same Portuguese resort, for which he was sentenced to seven years in jail.
The German court sent the case to the European Court of Justice( EC J ), in Luxembourg, to decide on a point of law relating to his extradition to Germany from Portugal and later Italy.
According to court do cuments, in which Brueckner is referred to as “XC”, he was extradited from Portugal for sexually abusing a minor in June 2017, and then travelled to the Netherlands and Italy whilst still on probation after his release.
He was extradited to Germany from Italy in October 2018 on a warrant for drug trafficking before being tried and convicted of rape and extortion in December last year.
The EC J case centred on whether the German authorities needed Portugal’ s consent to bring rape proceedings because of the 2017 extradition.
Italy had agreed that Brueckner – referred to as Christian B in the German media – could be tried for rape and extortion in Germany. Judge sat the ECJ ruled yesterday that only the permission of the Italian authorities was needed for the Germans to carry out their proceedings legally.
The decision is final and cannot be appealed but the case will now be returned to the German court to finally decide on Brueckner’s appeal, which he is likely to lose in light of yesterday’ s ruling. He is serving his sentence for drug trafficking until early next year and will be in custody until 2027 if he loses the appeal against the rape conviction.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the Madeleine Mccann investigation, has previously said that investigators have “concrete evidence”, but not “forensic evidence”, that he killed her. Reacting to the ruling, he said: “We are pleased that the European Court of Justice shared our legal view.
“With the decision, it is now clear that Christian B will remain in custody beyond January 2021, regardless of any early release from the prison [sentence] he is currently serving.”
The Metropolitan Police maintains its investigation into Madeleine’ s disappearance, Operation Grange, is a missing person inquiry. as there is no “definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead”.