Authorities in Germany have issued a brand new arrest warrant in separate circumstances for a person who can also be suspected within the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal 15 years in the past.

The suspect, recognized by media as Christian Brueckner, is at the moment serving a seven-year jail sentence in Germany for a rape he additionally dedicated in Portugal in 2005.

His jail time period is scheduled to finish in September 2025.

Concerned that he is perhaps launched earlier than standing trial once more, prosecutors within the northern metropolis of Braunschweig introduced final month that they’d charged the 45-year-old in 5 separate circumstances involving sexual offences allegedly dedicated in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

The Braunschweig state court docket stated it has authorised an arrest warrant on the grounds that there’s “urgent reason” to imagine he was behind three circumstances of significant rape and two circumstances of kid sexual abuse.

The arrest warrant should nonetheless be authorised by authorities in Italy, the place he was arrested in 2018 earlier than being extradited to Germany.

The Braunschweig court docket has stated a call on whether or not to ship the case to trial — a essential step within the German authorized course of — continues to be pending.

Due to its calendar of different circumstances, the opening of any trial can’t be anticipated earlier than subsequent yr, it stated.

Brueckner has not been charged within the McCann case, wherein he stays below investigation on suspicion of homicide.

He spent a few years in Portugal, together with within the resort of Praia da Luz across the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007.

He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.