K
ate and Gerry McCann said they “welcome the news”, with Portuguese authorities declaring a German official suspect in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.
German pedophile Christian Bruckner received a document in prison informing him that he was being made to fight over the disappearance of the British youth on May 3, 2007 from her holiday apartment in the Algarve, before being questioned for the first time.
He was asked “where was he on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared?” During a series of questions to him in prison after Portuguese prosecutors made him an official suspect in the unsolved crime.
In a statement on Friday, Madeleine’s parents said: “We welcome the news that the Portuguese authorities have declared a German” arguido “in connection with the disappearance of our beloved daughter Madeleine.
“This reflects the progress of the investigation being carried out by the Portuguese, German and British authorities. We are informed about the events by the Sofia Police.
“It is important to note that Arguido has not yet been charged with any specific crime related to Madeleine’s disappearance.
“Although the possibility may be small, we have not lost hope that Madeleine is still alive and we will reunite with her.
While grilling, Bruckner was asked to explain his whereabouts the night Madeleine disappeared, when her parents ate tapas nearby with friends, Portuguese sources said.
German authorities, acting on behalf of the Portuguese prosecutors, also asked him: “If she was not in the apartment from which she disappeared that night, where was she?
Sources close to the case in Portugal also revealed on Friday that Bruckner had not answered any of the questions he was asked during his interrogation in prison, while retaining the right to remain silent given to him by his new “arguido” status.
This is the first time Bruckner has faced an official quiz on Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
Madeleine McCann – In pictures
Madeleine McCann
Maddie disappeared in 2007
PA
Kate and Gary McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal ten years ago, during an interview with the BBC’s Fiona Bruce at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough
PA
Screenshot taken from the official page of the campaign to find Madeleine on Facebook in a message from Madeleine McCann’s parents, Gary and Kate, who describe the tenth anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance as a “terrible marker of time, stolen time”
PA
Ocean Club in Praia da Luz
Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann disappeared
Kate and Gary McCann
Kate and Gary McCann with a computer image of what their missing daughter Madeleine might look like
Reuters
Maddie disappeared in 2007
Madeleine McCann: She disappeared in 2007 at the age of three
PA
Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, who revealed that British detectives working on the case of Madeleine McCann are still pursuing “critical” clues as the 10th anniversary of her disappearance approaches
PA
Kate and Gary McCann
Kate and Gary McCann before a charity campaign in London
AFP / Getty Images
Ocean Club, located next to Apartment 5A in Praia Da Luz in Portugal, where Madeleine McCann disappeared
PA
Kate and Gary McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal ten years ago, during an interview with the BBC’s Fiona Bruce at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough
PA
Kate McCann
Kate McCann spoke to the press in a court in Lisbon last year
AFP / Getty Images
Kate and Gary McCann with their children
Kate and Gerry return home from Portugal in 2007
AFP / Getty Images
General view of the coastline at Praia Da Luz in Portugal, where Madeleine McCann disappeared
PA
Portuguese police
Police in Portugal are ravaging the Algarve after Madeleine disappeared in 2007
AFP / Getty Images
Kate and Gary McCann
Kate and Gary McCann pictured shortly after Maddie’s disappearance
AFP / Getty Images
Kate McCann
Kate McCann cries during a television appearance in 2008
Madeleine McCann
Maddie in an Everton shirt
Everton FC / PA
General view of the church of Nossa Senhora da Luz in Praia da Luz, Portugal, near the place where Madeleine McCann disappeared
PA
Scotland Yard members dig an area during the search for the missing British girl Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz, near Lagos on June 7, 2014.
Reuters
Kate and Gary McCann
Kate McCann and Gary McCann talk to the press after being released as official suspects
Getty Images
A poster is shown as Kate and Gary McCann give a press conference in 2012 for their missing daughter Madeleine McCann
Daily Mail
Kate and Gerry pictured five years after Maddie’s disappearance
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Ocean Club, located next to Apartment 5A in Praia Da Luz in Portugal, where Madeleine McCann disappeared
PA
Maddie’s parents in an interview with Crimewatch
A scene from a reconstruction of Crimewatch
BBC
His legal representative is believed to have been present during the key development of the long-running case that led German authorities to contact the convicted rapist as a prime suspect, but so far it has not led to him being formally suspected in Portugal. .
The questions were prepared by prosecutors in the resort of Portimao in the Algarve and are included in an official international letter with a request sent to the German authorities before the confirmation on Thursday night that he was declared an official suspect in Portugal.
On Thursday night, sources close to the case said they did not expect new events until the results of the current forensic work on samples taken from a VW Volkswagen van that Broikner drove while living in the Algarve were returned, which is on appeal. to the police for his vehicles. .
A Portuguese insider described the results as “potentially decisive”.
But he added: “They could be the last roll of the dice. At the moment, the situation is a bit wait. “
Portuguese prosecutors have confirmed their decision to make Christian Bruckner an official suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance late last night in his first official statement on the decision.
It is believed that the unexpected move is related to the statute of limitations in Portugal, which could prevent the successful prosecution of Bruckner in the country where Madeleine disappeared after May 3 this year.
Unlike in Germany, perpetrators of serious crimes such as murder and kidnapping cannot, in principle, be prosecuted in Portugal after 15 years.
The 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in May 2007 has already been marked by Portuguese lawyers as a key date in the unsolved mystery.
Kate and Gary McCann
/ PA conductor
Bruckner has been informed that he is now an “arguido” in the Oldenburg prison in northern Germany, where he spent seven years for raping an American pensioner in 2005 in Praia da Luz.
This gives the Portuguese authorities the opportunity to prosecute him by effectively “stopping the clock” for prosecuting if German prosecutors decide they do not have enough evidence to charge a pedophile they consider their prime suspect.
A written statement issued by the Portimao Division of the Faro Criminal Investigation and Prosecutor’s Office (DIAP) late last night / Thursday night, 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 man 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 the Portimao department of the DIAP in Faro with the assistance of the Policia Judiciaria police.
“The investigation was carried out in cooperation with the British and German authorities.
The country’s PJ police have not yet commented officially.
Portuguese sources claim that 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 placed him in Praia da Luz on the night she disappeared. when her parents ate tapas nearby.
The German tramp, who spent several years in the Algarve and served a nine-month sentence in the Algarve for stealing petrol five months before the British youth disappeared, remained silent after being informed he was already an official suspect in Portugal.
Missing: Madeleine McCann
Fears that the possibility of justice for Maddie and her parents could be hammered out in two weeks’ time, despite the ongoing investigation into Portugal’s unsolved crime, were first raised nearly two years ago.
Madeleine McCann’s family lawyer Rogerio Alves warned in July 2020 that Portugal’s 15-year prosecution limit means less than two years to take action 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 would be “significantly reduced” after the day Kate and Gary McCann remember their eldest daughter exactly a decade and a half after the holiday mystery. .
Speaker Spencer Donner of MDM Legal said in the run-up to the latest developments: “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.
“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 end of the prosecution …”
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