Portuguese police ‘have only 22 more months to make their case against prime suspect Christian Brueckner’ for the kidnap and murder of three-year-old Madeleine McCann before 15-year limit for prosecutions runs out
- Rogerio Alves said police have only 22 months left to arrest Christian Brueckner
- Said investigation ‘still on time’ even with 15-year prosecution limit in Portugal
- Madeleine went missing in 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz
Portuguese police have less than two years to make their case against Christian Brueckner for the kidnap and murder of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, her family’s lawyer said.
Rogerio Alves said police have only 22 more months and ‘time is getting short now’ because of a 15-year statute of limitations for prosecutions in Portugal.
Madeleine went missing in 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann were in a tapas restaurant close by.
Portuguese police have less than two years to make their case against Christian Brueckner for the kidnap and murder of three-year-old Madeleine McCann (pictured), her family’s lawyer said
Speaking on McCann: The Hunt for the Prime Suspect on ITV, Alves said: ‘We have a 15 years time barrier, even to manslaughter, to homicide, to certain sexual offences — and even to the most serious kind of kidnapping.
‘So we are still on time. But time is getting short now.’
The show – set to air at 9pm on Thursday – also addresses the mistakes police made which potentially stopped Brueckner from being a known suspect earlier on.
Rogerio Alves (pictured) said ‘time is getting short now’ because of a 15-year statute of limitations for prosecutions in Portugal
Last month German police named Brueckner as their prime suspect in the kidnap and murder of Madeleine who vanished while on holiday.
Last month German police named Christian Brueckner (pictured) as their prime suspect in the kidnap and murder of Madeleine who vanished while on holiday
He is currently languishing in a German prison in Kiel on a drug-related sentence.
Detectives in northern Germany have spent weeks making desperate appeals for information to link Brueckner to the youngster’s abduction but have not so far secured the vital evidence they need.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the investigation, has told the McCanns they have concrete evidence Madeleine is dead, in the biggest break-through in the 13-year-old case.
He said he hoped to be able to charge Brueckner within the next two months – but has added their investigation will not drag on forever.
His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher said it was for detectives to prove he was guilty. ‘As things stand now I do not actually believe there will be any charges,’ he said. ‘I do not anticipate a prosecution.
‘Thank God, in our legal system the prosecution has to prove the crime to an accused person and it is not the accused who must exonerate himself.
‘As long as my client does not know what he is accused of, and on what basis, there is no reason to think otherwise.’