A German court has dropped sexual assault charges against the main suspect in the Madeleine McCann case. The decision means that the court no longer has any legal authority to judge in the case concerning the girl’s disappearance, the man’s lawyer states, reports Sky News. It was on May 3, 2007 that three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared without a trace during a vacation with her family in Portugal. The high-profile case has not yet been resolved, 16 years later, and now a German court is dropping accusations of sexual crimes against the person who was the main suspect in the case. Charged with child sexual abuse In June 2020, German police stated that Madeleine McCann was most likely dead, and that the suspect was likely responsible. However, he has never been charged with any crime related to the disappearance. Last year, German prosecutors further announced that they had charged the suspect with three counts of aggravated rape, as well as two counts of child sexual abuse, in Portugal between December 2000 and June 2017. However, these charges could not be directly linked to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, and now that the arrest warrant has been revoked, the court can no longer be expected to deal with the case. Sentenced for the rape of an elderly woman The decision means, in other words, that the authorities of the city of Braunschweig will no longer have any jurisdiction in the case, that is, legal authority to judge. The main suspect is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve, in Portugal, where Madeleine McCann disappeared.
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