According to Bild newspaper, the 48-year-old German, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in 2005 in the Algarve, is due to be released on September 17.

Brüeckner also had a fine of 1,446 euros outstanding from a previous conviction in 2015 and if he did not pay, he would have another 56 days in prison.

According to the German newspaper Bild, an anonymous donor paid the fine, which allows him to be released from prison in September.

According to several media reports, the authorities hoped that extending the prison sentence would give investigators more time to bring new charges in the McCann case.

Brüeckner's lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, told Bild that he believes that after his release, the German will live on the northern German island of Sylt, where he previously served a 21-month sentence for drug trafficking.

However, prosecutors fear that Brüeckner will flee Germany, meaning that it will be extremely difficult to bring him to trial if they find enough evidence to charge him with involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.


Earlier this month, searches were carried out in the Atalaia area of ​​Lagos, in the Algarve, at the request of the German authorities as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007.


Around 30 inspectors from the Judicial Police and the same number of German police officers searched ruined buildings, cisterns and abandoned wells on dozens of properties in the Atalaia area between Praia do Porto de Mós and the village of Luz, in places where Christian Brüeckner had passed through.

Ground radars, equipment that allows the identification of changes in the soil, were used in the work, as well as brush cutters and weed whackers to clear parts of the land, and several objects were collected for analysis by the German police.

Madeleine McCann disappeared from the apartment where she was sleeping with her two-year-old twin brothers in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007.

In 2020, German police named Christian Brüeckner as the prime suspect in the child's abduction and murder, but no charges have been filed.

The German denies any involvement in the child's disappearance.