The prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann has had his prison release date brought forward to September 17 after an outstanding fine was paid, German prosecutors said Monday.
The person who paid the fine on behalf of German suspect Christian Brueckner could yet reverse the move, said Christian Wolters, a spokesman for the Brunswick prosecutor’s office.
Brueckner, 48, is behind bars in Germany for sex crimes unrelated to the case of Madeleine, whose disappearance while on a family holiday in Portugal triggered a years-long hunt and huge media attention.
German investigators in 2020 named him as a suspect in the “Maddie” investigation but they have yet to charge him over the case.
Brueckner had originally been due for release from prison in January next year, Wolters, whose office has been leading the probe against him, told AFP.
But an outstanding fine that he owed had been paid, bringing his release date forward to September 17, Wolters said, without giving further details, including who had paid it.
News outlet Der Spiegel has reported that the €1447 ($2803) fine was related to offences including document forgery and assault and that, as Brueckner had been unable to pay it, he was sentenced to extra time in jail.
But it was paid earlier this month by a woman who had worked in a police department that had been involved in fitting bugs to eavesdrop on Brueckner in his jail cell, Der Spiegel said.
The unidentified woman had told Der Spiegel she had made the transfer but that it had been a “misunderstanding” and that she had tried in vain to reverse it.
Wolters, however, said that “if someone thinks they paid by mistake, they can of course contact us and we will look into it”.
“If it turns out to be a wrong transfer, it can of course be reversed.”
Brueckner is currently serving a sentence for raping an elderly US woman in Portugal in the same seaside resort where Madeleine went missing.
He was cleared of several other charges of rape and child sex abuse after a trial last year.
Earlier this month, investigators conducted a fresh, three-day hunt in the area of the Algarve where Madeleine disappeared but did not detail the results of the search efforts.
-Agence France-Presse