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Madeleine McCann suspect's rape appeal 'likely invalid'

Christian Brückner was named as the lead suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann - Carabinieri
Christian Brückner was named as the lead suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann - Carabinieri

The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has been advised that his appeal against a rape conviction is invalid by a European Court of Justice official.

Christian Brückner was named as the lead suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine, which the German authorities are treating as a murder investigation, in June.

The 43-year-old, currently in prison for a drugs offence, faced a further nine years behind bars after he was convicted in December of raping a 72-year-old American woman in Praia de Luiz in 2005, two years before Madeleine went missing in the same Portuguese village.

Madeleine McCann went missing in 2007 - Shutterstock 
Madeleine McCann went missing in 2007 - Shutterstock

But his legal team last month argued that the conviction should be quashed because he was extradited from Italy on a drugs charges, not for rape.

According to EU law, people extradited by a member state through an arrest warrant may not be prosecuted for a previous crime "other than that which is the basis of the surrender".

On Thursday, an advocate general at the European Court advised that the appeal did not appear valid because Brückner left Germany voluntarily after his first extradition from Portugal, so Portuguese authorities have no role to play.

The decision, known as an "opinion" in the court, is not legally binding and is the penultimate step to a final judgment, which will be delivered by three more judges later this month.

If Brückner's rape conviction is ruled unlawful, he could be released in January 2021 when his drugs sentence expires.

At the hearing last month, lawyers on behalf of the German state argued that Brückner's legal argument was "devoid of sense".

"The suspect made the most of open European borders and now he wants us to read the law in such a way it gets turned on its head to give him an advantage in court," Felix Halabi told the court.

The court heard how Brückner left the country to travel to Italy via the Netherlands because he "wanted to go on holiday", his lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, said.

When he arrived in Italy, he was subject to a European arrest warrant for drugs offences from 2011 but, upon returning to Germany, was put on trial for the rape. Mr Fülscher argued that this is “unconstitutional”.