Madeleine investigation: Brückner “is final suspect”

ALIBI || With the world’s press now maintaining that Christian Brückner has an alibi for the night Madeleine went missing, the main issue is that as of May 3 the statute of limitations on prosecutions of this kind has come crashing down.

This means that Christian Brückner is positively the last suspect authorities can put up.

They now have until November 3, 2029 to ‘gather proof against him’, explains legal commentator Rui Pereira.

“Any proof gathered from now on can only be directed at

Brückner,” he told Correio da Manhã. This is because crimes punishable with jail terms of more than 10 years have a 15-year prosecution limit.

“In this case, the crime is one of aggravated murder, carrying a prison terms of up to 25 years (...) In my opinion, (the time limit) is very short and should be extended,” he added. But the law is the law and Christian Brückner is covered by it.

Now that he has been made an official suspect, police have half the period of the legal time limit (seven and a half years) to come up with their proof that he is the man responsible for snatching Madeleine.

As Brückner is in jail, there is no huge rush – albeit more and more voices are coming out to insist the 44-year-old has simply been chosen as he is a convenient option; a scapegoat, in other words.

The scapegoat label was first fixed by former PJ police coordinator Gonçalo Amaral – the man who led the initial investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance; it was acknowledged by Brückner’s lawyer and has now been reaffirmed by British ‘investigator’ Mark Williams Thomas, whose documentary ‘Madeleine McCann: The Hunt for the Prime Suspect’ aired on Tuesday evening on AMC Crime channel.

Mark Williams Thomas’ assertions were carried by British tabloid The Daily Mail, a newspaper that has also described him as “self promoting” and “obsessed with celebrity sex abusers” to the point that he helped police ruin the lives of several who were “totally innocent”.