Madeleine McCann disappearance: The probe in Germany might go until next year.

Madeleine McCann disappearance:: According to the state prosecutor in Braunschweig, the German inquiry into the 2007 disappearance of British infant Madeleine McCann might go until next year.

Officials in Faro, Portugal, said on Thursday that convicted rapist Christian Brückner, 44, is an arguido, or “formal suspect” in the case, marking the first time that a suspect has been named in the case since Kate and Gerry McCann, the toddler’s parents, were proclaimed suspects in 2007. In 2008, they were formally exonerated of all suspicions.

Officials in the northern German city of Oldenburg confirmed on Friday that Brückner had been told about Madeleine’s disappearance. Brückner is serving a seven-year sentence for raping an American retiree in 2005 in the same area of Portugal’s Algarve region where Madeleine went missing.

Madeleine’s parents said they “welcomed the news that the Portuguese authorities have declared a German man an arguido”. They said in a statement: “Even though the possibility may be slim, we have not given up hope that Madeleine is still alive and we will be reunited with her.”

However, the state prosecutor in Braunschweig, Hans Christian Wolters, who has been investigating Brückner over Madeleine’s disappearance and four other alleged offences since 2020, said the news from Portugal was unlikely to indicate a breakthrough in the 15-year-old case.

“We note the announcement from Faro, but it does not affect our own work in a significant way,” Wolters said. Asked if it were possible that Brückner was about to be charged in Portugal and extradited there from Germany, Wolters said he believed it was “rather unlikely there will be an indictment in Portugal”.

On 3 May, it will be the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction from her bed in a holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz, and crimes having a potential jail term of 10 years or more in Portugal have a 15-year statute of limitations.

According to Wolters, the arguido categorization “appears to have a procedural history in Portugal.” “That manner, a statute of limitations can be avoided.”

The Portuguese ruling, Brückner’s lawyer Friedrich Fülscher told the German tabloid Bild, was a “procedural trick.”

In June 2020, German police said that Madeleine was presumed dead and that Brückner was most likely to blame for her disappearance. British officials, on the other hand, continue to approach it as a missing persons investigation, and Madeleine’s parents “still believe” she is alive.

On 3 May, it will be the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction from her bed in a holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz, and crimes having a potential jail term of 10 years or more in Portugal have a 15-year statute of limitations.

According to Wolters, the arguido categorization “appears to have a procedural history in Portugal.” “That manner, a statute of limitations can be avoided.”

The Portuguese ruling, Brückner’s lawyer Friedrich Fülscher told the German tabloid Bild, was a “procedural trick.”

In June 2020, German police said that Madeleine was presumed dead and that Brückner was most likely to blame for her disappearance. British officials, on the other hand, continue to approach it as a missing persons investigation, and Madeleine’s parents “still believe” she is alive.

Three allegations of rape and two instances of child molestation have been filed, the most recent of which occurred in 2017, when Brückner is accused of exposing himself and masturbating in front of a group of youngsters.

Wolters said his office will make a statement on the next step toward a possible prosecution by the end of May, but that “the end of our inquiries into the McCann case is not yet in sight” and that the probe may last until 2023.

If Brückner is charged with the other alleged crimes in Germany, which is expected to happen by the end of the summer or early fall, he must either individually accept to stand trial in Germany or Portugal, or the prosecution must renew extradition papers from Italy.

If the McCann suspect were to be prosecuted in Portugal, the Portuguese authorities would have to go through the same procedural hoops.

Different national prosecutors in Europe can conduct simultaneous investigations into criminal offences, while EU legislative agreements are in place to prevent persons from being prosecuted with the same crimes more than once.