Missing German police are convinced Madeleine McCann was murdered in Portugal
Maddie's Riddle Special
A man has been charged in Germany, at the request of the Portuguese justice, for the disappearance in 2007 of the British girl Madeleine McCann, who had shocked the world, the
Portimao prosecutor's office (southern Portugal)
reported Thursday .
The suspect, whose identity was not disclosed, was charged on Wednesday, the prosecution said in a statement.
German authorities have claimed since 2020 that they have
evidence of the murder of Maddie
, who disappeared in Portugal at the age of 3, and point to a German recidivist pedophile, identified as
Christian B
, as the main suspect .
The man is currently serving a prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in 2005 in southern Portugal.
Madeleine McCann, known as Maddie, disappeared on May 3, 2007 shortly before her fourth birthday in
Praia da Luz
, a tourist destination in southern Portugal where her parents were vacationing with a group of friends.
Her disappearance gave rise to an exceptional international campaign to try to find her.
The photos of the girl, with brown hair and light eyes, went around the world.
After 14 months of controversial investigations, in which the parents were blamed, the Portuguese police
filed the case in 2008 to reopen it five years later
.
But it was not until June 2020 that the case accelerated when the Brunswick (Germany) prosecutor's office pointed to a 43-year-old man arrested for another case as responsible and assured that the girl would be dead.
According to German investigators, Christian B. lived at that time a few kilometers from the hotel in Praia da Luz where the girl disappeared.
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