A German man suspected of being behind one of the 21st century's biggest missing persons mysteries walked free from a prison near Hanover on Wednesday after completing a lengthy sentence for rape. Briton Madeleine McCann has not been seen since she disappeared from the Portuguese holiday apartment where she was staying with her family on May 3, 2007. File Photo UPI
Sept. 17 (UPI) -- The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British child missing since 2007, was freed Wednesday from a prison outside of Hanover in northwestern Germany after completing a sentence for an unrelated rape conviction.
Police confirmed that Christian Bruckner, 48, left Sehnde Prison, accompanied by his lawyer, after authorities, who had been desperately trying to find a way to keep him incarcerated, conceded there were no legal grounds for his continued detention.
It was unclear if he would be required to wear an electronic tracker on his ankle as demanded by prosecutors who believe he is responsible for three-year-old Madeleine's disappearance 18 years ago from a resort in southwestern Portugal, which they are treating as a homicide.
German prosecutors also want Bruckner, a convicted pedophile and drifter who spent much of the early 2000s traveling between different European countries, to have to report to authorities on a regular basis and surrender his passport, citing him as a flight risk as they pursue an 8-year-long investigation.
