Court says restrictions would breach his right to freedom of movement

The main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann is allowed to leave Germany, a court has ruled.

That overturns one of the conditions under which the German national was released after serving his sentence in an unconnected case.

The man, identified by media as Christian Brückner, was released in mid-September after serving his sentence for raping an elderly American woman in Portugal.

At the time, a court in Hildesheim imposed conditions that applied for five years, including that he wear an electronic ankle monitor, report regularly to probation services, and remain resident in Germany.

On Monday, a higher state court in Celle said that it upheld most of the conditions imposed in the 28 October ruling, but overturned the stipulation that the man must reside in Germany.

It said that earlier ruling interfered with European Union citizens’ freedom of movement within the 27-nation bloc.

Lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher leaves a German prison in a black car carrying Christian B., a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who sits in the back seat behind tinted windows (AP)

It added that it would, in principle, be possible to issue a temporary ban on the man leaving Germany, for example to “arrange technical matters”, or to ban him from going to specific regions, but that the lower court in Hildesheim would have to decide exactly what arrangements to make.

In June 2020, German prosecutors said the man was being investigated on suspicion of murder in connection with McCann’s disappearance from an apartment complex in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. They said that they assumed the girl was dead.

Police have since carried out more searches in Portugal, where the man spent many years. But the suspect, who has denied any involvement in the three-year-old’s disappearance, has not been charged in the case.

The investigation was not affected by his release.

Friedrich Fülscher, the man’s lawyer, has said charges would have been filed against his client long ago if there had been sufficient evidence.