Suspect

Christian Brocner, the condemned rapist defined by German prosecutors as the main suspect in 2007 The disappearance of the British child Madeleine McCann In Portugal, he was released from prison in Northern Germany on Wednesday after spending his sentence in an unrelated rape.

Shortly after nine in the morning, local time, Brockner was expelled from the Sand Prison in Audi Al -Black, accompanied by his lawyer and accompanying the police. The police confirmed that he left the facility but said they did not know where he would go.

Brutener, 48, has completed the seven -year prison sentence by raping a 72 -year -old American woman in Portugal. Upon his release, he was provided with the electronic ankle brand, a condition that is imposed to enable the authorities to monitor his movements. His lawyers refused to say where he would live.

German prosecutors said they believe that Brookner is responsible for the disappearance of the holiday rental house for her family at the Portuguese Braia da Luz Resort, citing evidence, including the cell phone data that she placed near the resort at the time. Maccon was 3 years at that time.

Brockerner, who lived for years in the southern Garf region in Portugal, where Braya da Luz is located, has multiple previous convictions of sexual crimes, including against children, and a long record of minor crimes. Despite the circumstantial evidence, it has never been charged with regard to the case of Makan, and has always denied any involvement in its disappearance.

For many observers, the issue highlighted major differences between legal systems in Germany and the United Kingdom

Mark Stevens, a consultant at the British legal company Howard Kennedy, told CBS News that legal thresholds differ between countries.

“In the United Kingdom and the United States, you have to believe that there is a 50 % better chance in a successful prosecution before charges.

However, in Germany, he said the legal system determines a significant threshold for trial.

Stevens said: “The prosecutor’s statement says that they have not gathered sufficient direct evidence to accuse him,” Stevens said. “This is because according to the German bases, circumstantial and deductive evidence is unacceptable in the same way.”

Madeleine’s disappearance is still one of the most unnamed cases in the world, and even after his release, Bookkner is likely to remain in the investigation center, as it was since the German prosecutors was public. Known it as a suspect In 2020.

British investigators were hoping to question Brookner a few days before he was released in Germany, to clarify the main details about his movements in Braia da Luz while Macan disappeared. London Police, the capital, submitted an official request to conduct an interview with him, but Brookner refused To speak with investigators earlier this week.