Madeleine McCann suspect petition launched by mums in bid to keep him in jail
Concerned parents have launched a petition in Germany to block the release of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner.
The paedophile and rapist is just weeks away from being freed from prison, despite being the only suspect in Madeleine's 2007 disappearance. Prosecutors appear no nearer to charging him and are powerless to stop him being released. He is due to walk out of Sehnde prison on September 17.
Now a group has launched an online campaign demanding German authorities activate emergency investigative custody or full 'preventive detention' - a method which could keep Brückner behind bars indefinitely.
To justify the move, the group argues that Brückner poses an indisputable ongoing threat to public safety.
Yvonne Gotteskind Behlke, 36, a mum from near Hanover said: 'I have children myself. I can't understand that with everything that's been found, and with his previous convictions for child abuse, he is set to walk free.'
"There are so many things here that they could actually keep him in prison for life, even if they can't prove it with Maddie McCann now. To be honest, I don't understand any of it anymore. That's why I said, well, I'm going to try and raise the alarm here.
"So, I'm going to speak up.'
The campaigners say his pattern of alleged offences should be more than enough to keep him behind bars.
'I want to get lots and lots of signatures and then, ideally, to get on TV so that the public prosecutor's office has to comment publicly on all this stuff, and say why and how Brückner is a danger to everything and everyone, and that they can't let him out, regardless of whether they find anything else or not,' added Yvonne.
'I want them to take an official stand and really stand up for humanity publicly.'
Despite a lengthy police investigation, detectives appear to be no closer to charging Brueckner 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. German search teams spent three days hunting for evidence in Portugal earlier this month.
Brueckner was living in a ramshackle farmhouse on the edge of Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished from the holiday resort. Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leics, were dining with friends at the time she disappeared.
They continue to hope they will one day be reunited with their daughter.
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