A mysterious donor paid a fine of 1,446 euros that might allow the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Christian Brueckner, to be released in three months, on September 17.
The 48-year-old German is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape committed in 2005, in Algarve, Portugal, involving a then 72-year-old American woman. This sentence ends in September, and with the fine paid, Brueckner is expected to be released that month; without payment, he would have faced an additional 56 days of incarceration.
This new development displeases investigators in the Maddie case, who want Christian Brueckner to remain behind bars longer to present new charges regarding the British girl’s disappearance.
Apart from the mysterious donation, the suspect’s lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, disclosed to German newspaper Bild that after being released, Christian Brueckner plans to live on the island of Sylt in northern Germany, where he was previously detained for 21 months for drug trafficking.
Upon his release, Maddie case investigators fear he might flee the country, complicating efforts to bring him to trial, even if sufficient evidence is found to charge him with her disappearance.
Christian Brueckner has been under investigation by German police for Maddie’s disappearance since 2020 and has so far vehemently denied all accusations. Last October, he was also cleared of several sexual assaults in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017.
The news of the anonymous donation comes slightly more than a week after authorities conducted searches in Lagos, Algarve, near the German’s former home and the place where the girl disappeared.
The searches are set to begin on Tuesday and will take place between Praia da Luz and a house where Christian Bruckner once lived.
Last week, the German Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that the searches were “completed as planned” and, for now, have no results to present.
At the end of that statement, the German Public Prosecutor’s Office thanked “all police officers involved in the searches” and added that “the cooperation between Portuguese police and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) was excellent and very constructive.”
It should be remembered that Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007, just days before her fourth birthday, from the room where she was sleeping with her twin siblings in an apartment at a holiday resort in Praia da Luz.
