The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case will be released from prison in a matter of weeks, according to the lead prosecutor investigating her disappearance.
Christian Brückner, who is serving a sentence for a rape conviction in northern Germany, is due to be released by September 17.
Hans Christian Wolters told the BBC although he believed the 48-year-old was dangerous, he had to leave prison because of the current legal situation.
Brückner has denied being involved in the case and has not been charged in relation to it although German prosecutors have said there is evidence he may have been in the area at the time.
Wolters said Brückner “is not just our No 1 suspect, he’s the only suspect”, he said. “There is no one else.”
“We have evidence which speaks against [Brückner], which indicates that he is responsible for the disappearance and the death of Madeleine,” he said.
“We haven’t found anything in the last five years that exonerates [him]. We found evidence that strengthens our case. But in our view, it’s not strong enough to make a guilty verdict likely, and that’s why so far we couldn’t charge him or apply for an arrest warrant.”
He pledged to persevere with the case, although there was not enough evidence.
Madeleine was 3 years old when she disappeared from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3, 2007.
Her parents, Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leicestershire, Britain, had been out at a restaurant with friends close to the ground-floor apartment where Madeleine and her younger twin siblings were asleep.
They realised their daughter was missing at around 10pm local time after carrying out checks on their children.
In June, detectives investigating the disappearance left empty-handed after a three-day search near where she went missing 18 years ago.
Officers from Portugal’s Polícia Judiciaria, under the direction of German authorities, scoured nearly 50ha of gorse scrubland east of Praia da Luz for any trace of the 3-year-old’s remains, but nothing was found.
Portuguese authorities named Brückner as a formal suspect in their initial investigation, but German prosecutors said he was their prime suspect in 2020 after leading one of the highest-profile missing persons cases.
Wolters said an expert who had assessed Brückner described him as a danger to society.
“You have to expect [Brückner] to commit further crimes,” he said.
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