Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Bruckner to make last-minute plea before jail release
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner is to beg a judge not to impose restrictions on him when he is freed from jail.
The paedophile, who is suspected of snatching and killing the British youngster in 2007, is due to be released next month. Prosecutors had hoped to charge him over Madeleine 's disappearance before he completed his seven-year rape sentence.
But they have admitted defeat in their race against the clock and Brueckner will walk free from prison on September 17. As the Mirror revealed last month, German authorities want him to be subjected to tough restrictions when he is released.
They are demanding the 48-year-old is tagged and has his passport confiscated amid fears he could disappear. His lawyer previously said Brueckner wants to vanish overseas to a country that has no extradition treaty with the EU or UK.
Investigators applied to a court for him to be subjected to 'führungsaufsicht' - a form of judicial supervision. It is reserved for prisoners who have served time for serious crimes but are still deemed as being high risk.
Brueckner would be banned from going near schools, nurseries or other places regularly used by children. And he would have to regularly 'check in' at a local police station and need approval to change his home address.
Brueckner will be given a chance to respond to the prosecutors' application in court in Hildesheim next week. He is expected to ask for the most stringent conditions to be waived.
German authorities had hoped outstanding fines for an offence in jail would keep him behind bars until January. But they were dealt a blow in June when a former police officer paid the £1,300 levies out of the blue.
German prosecutors named Brueckner as their prime suspect in the Madeleine case in June 2020 but have yet to charge him. Despite a lengthy police investigation, detectives appear to be no closer to charging him over Madeleine's disappearance.
He was cleared last October of a string of sex crimes he was accused of carrying out in Portugal. Prosecutors are awaiting the outcome of an appeal against those verdicts lodged in Germany's Federal Court of Justice.
Brueckner denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance in May 2007. German search teams spent three days hunting for evidence in Portugal last month.
Brueckner was living in a ramshackle farmhouse on the edge of Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished.
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