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Portuguese sources have confirmed that authorities have made Christian Bruckner an official suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
The 44-year-old man was told he was now an “arguido” in Portugal in his German prison cell on Wednesday morning, an insider said.
A written statement issued by the Portimao section of the Faro Criminal Investigation and Public Prosecutor’s Office (DIAP) said: “As part of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in 2007, a person was quarrels. “
The Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office and the national Policia Judiciaria have not yet made an official comment.
But a well-positioned source said the decision was due to Portugal’s statute of limitations, which means that perpetrators of crimes punishable by a maximum sentence of more than 10 years in prison usually cannot be prosecuted there after 15 years.
Madeleine disappeared at the age of three from her family apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
The source said: “The legal grounds for turning Bruckner into an arguido include the fact that he claims to have confessed to a friend that he stole Madeleine, and cell phone recordings put him in Praia da Luz on the night she disappeared.
“But this is obviously due to the fact that the Portuguese authorities want to keep their opportunities open with the approaching 15-year deadline. Bruckner remained silent after being informed that he had been charged and refused to be questioned as part of Portuguese criminal proceedings.
It is not yet clear who told him he had been granted arguido status, but this followed an official international letter of request sent by the Portuguese authorities to their German counterparts.
Missing: Madeleine McCann
This move by Portugal paves the way for him to be sent from Germany to the Algarve for official questioning, but there are no immediate plans to try to interrogate him in Portugal.
Understandably, German investigators are currently focusing their efforts on forensic work on the VW truck used by Brueckner while living in the Algarve, which is part of a police complaint against the convicted rapist’s vehicles.
Earlier this month, Portuguese authorities insisted they continue to investigate Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, despite reports that Scotland Yard plans to end its investigation into Operation Grange in eleven years.
A spokesman for the Portuguese Public Prosecutor’s Office, asked about the future of the investigation, led by a prosecutor based in the resort of Portimao in the Algarve, said: “The investigation is ongoing and the investigation is not yet final.
A written statement issued by the Portimao Division of the Faro Criminal Investigation and Prosecutor’s Office (DIAP) entitled: “The Maddie case. A constitution of an Arguido, “he said:” As part of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in 2007, a person was turned into an arguido on Wednesday.
“The person was forced by the German authorities to comply with a request for international judicial cooperation submitted by the Portuguese Ministry of Public Affairs. “
The investigation is being led by DIAP’s Portimao department in Faro, with the assistance of the Policia Judiciaria police. “The investigation was carried out in cooperation with the British and German authorities.
“Arguido” – usually translated as “named suspect” or “official suspect” – is someone who is treated by the Portuguese police as more than a witness, but has not been arrested or charged.
Under Portuguese law, a person declared an arguido – “arguida” in the case of a woman – has legal protection that does not extend to a witness, including the right to remain silent during questioning and the right to legal representation.
Detectives refer to someone’s arguido status as pre-arrest or indictment, but that doesn’t mean arrests or charges automatically follow.
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry, were brought into contention in September 2007 after Robert Murat. But their status was revoked in July 2008, when Portugal archived its first investigation. Sources from the Portuguese police said that the completion of their long-term “cold case” review was “completely ruled out”.
It is feared that the possibility of justice for Maddie and her parents could be hammered out in just over three weeks, although Portugal’s ongoing investigation was launched before confirmation that the Portuguese prosecutor’s office and police would continue their investigation. Madeleine McCann’s family lawyer Rogerio Alves warned in July 2020 that Portugal’s 15-year prosecution limit means less than two years to go against Bruckner, whom German authorities have treated as their prime suspect. .
And Portuguese legal experts acknowledged earlier this month that the chances of someone being jailed for Madeleine’s disappearance will be “significantly reduced” after the day Kate and Gary McCann remember their eldest daughter exactly a decade and a half after the holiday mystery. .
MDS Legal’s Spencer Donner said: “I think the most likely scenario with the information we have at the moment is that everything will fall in 15 years. “Portugal has a statute of limitations, which means that perpetrators of crimes punishable by a maximum sentence of more than 10 years in prison usually cannot be prosecuted after 15 years.
Kate and Gary McCann
/ PA conductor
“This, of course, means that the possibility of prosecuting Madeleine McCann in Portugal after 3 May this year may be terminated.
“If she is found alive and has been a victim of sexual crimes as a minor, the trial can take place until the age of 23.
“But if Madeleine is dead, according to German authorities, and was killed in Portugal at the time she disappeared, the final point of prosecution will be the 15th anniversary of her disappearance under normal circumstances, excluding any technical problems that they could potentially stop time. a constraint like the Covid pandemic.
“There are some arguments that can be discussed, but my perception and understanding of the law is that it’s been 15 years and that’s it.
“If we had a situation where the body was found and we had reason to believe that it was a murder and the authorities here had a person to accuse, we would have a limit of those 15 years.
Another lawyer from Lisbon, who asked not to be named, added: “The police and the prosecutor’s office in Portugal will be aware of the deadlines for the Maddie case.
“Our statute of limitations carries with it the possibility that within a few weeks the person responsible for her disappearance will never be brought to justice in the country where she disappeared, even with arrest and confessions.
Bruckner’s decision to become an argument in Portugal came as a surprise, as sources close to the case said two weeks ago that they considered it “very unlikely”.
Madeleine McCann
The Portuguese Attorney General agreed to reopen the investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in October 2013, more than five years after his archiving, at the official request of the Policia Judiciaria.
PJ chief Helena Monteiro is still leading the current Portuguese police on a “cold case” from the northern city of Porto.
In October 2013, she questioned the widow of a former worker at the resort where Madeleine’s parents were staying when she disappeared. Serial thief Euclid Lopez Monteiro, who died in a tractor crash in August 2009, has never been publicly ruled out as a suspect, despite calls from his family to police to confirm his innocence.
Late last year, it was announced that Bruckner would be charged in Germany with three separate sex crimes this year, including the 2004 rape of an Irishwoman in the Algarve.
This became clear in June 202, when police arrested the main suspect in the case, Madeleine McCann, after he claimed to have told a friend in a pub, “I grabbed her.”
He allegedly admitted to abducting the young man while sitting in a German bar on the 10th anniversary of her abduction.
Reports at the time said he and a friend watched a television report on the case in 2017, when he said he knew what had happened to her. He also allegedly boasted that he had “stolen” her.
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