Main suspect in Madeleine McCann disappearance could be free within months
An outstanding fine against the main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal has been paid off, German prosecutors said Monday.
It means he could be released from prison in a separate case in mid-September instead of January 2026.
Prosecutors in Braunschweig confirmed that an unpaid fine of about €1,450 against the suspect — a German national identified by media as Christian Brueckner — has been paid, German news agency dpa reported, without giving further details.
The payment moves forward his potential release date to 17 September.
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder.
He spent many years in Portugal, including in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's disappearance. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Investigators in the UK, Portugal and Germany are still piecing together what happened on the night 3-year-old Madeleine disappeared.
She was in the same room as her brother and sister — 2-year-old twins — while their parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.
The outstanding fine was in connection with earlier cases against the suspect related to forgery and bodily harm, the weekly Der Spiegel reported.
He faced spending an extra 111 days in prison because he could not pay the money himself.
Der Spiegel reported that a former employee of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office paid the fine, but she had told the magazine she had tried to rescind the payment when she found out what it was really for.
In January this year Braunschweig Chief Public Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters admitted there was no current prospect of charging Brueckner over Madeleine's disappearance, as police were still trying to secure forensic evidence linking him to the case.
Then in March, Wolters confirmed to The Independent that Brueckner had filed a motion for early release.
German police were in early June granted permission to undertake a widespread search of key areas in Portugal in a hunt for evidence, including Madeleine's body.
The search, running from 2 June to 6 June, focussed on an area around the spot where Brueckner had been living at the time of Madeleine's disappearance.
German authorities called the search 'very constructive' and said it ended as planned.
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