Prosecutors in southern Portugal have officially charged a suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann, a British child who vanished nearly 15 years ago while on a family holiday in the southern European country.
The suspect was not named in a statement released on Thursday by the Public Ministry district of Faro, the main city in Portugal’s Algarve area, but it stated they were acting on a request from German authorities and in conjunction with English investigators.
German authorities named Christian Brueckner, a German citizen, as a suspect in the investigation in mid-2020.
McCann was 3 years old when she vanished from a flat in the Algarve seaside resort of Praia da Luz, where her family was vacationing.
Brueckner, 45, is serving a drug-related sentence in a German prison and is facing a seven-year sentence in Portugal for raping a 72-year-old American woman in 2005. The rape occurred in Praia da Luz as well.
Brueckner has denied any participation in the disappearance of Madeleine.
The investigation is being led by investigators in the nearby town of Portimao, with cooperation from the Judiciary Police, according to the prosecutors’ statement.
