The prison in Kiel (Germany), where the new suspect for the disappearance of Maddie McCann is imprisoned. – AFP
Identification of a new suspect in the case of the disappearance of the little Briton
Madeleine McCann thirteen years ago at
PortugalIs “encouraging”, Portuguese lawyer for the McCann family told AFP on Friday. These new elements led to the reopening of another investigation for the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl.
“There are elements that seem encouraging to me” because this track seems to be “more solid” than others followed in the past, said Rogério Alves. “There was mistrust on the part of the parents with regard to the information which came out and promised a conclusion of this affair. This time, it is inevitable that it will represent a ray of hope “for them, added the Portuguese lawyer.
He worked in the region where the girl disappeared
German police announced on Wednesday evening that they are investigating a new suspect, a 43-year-old repeat pedophile, currently incarcerated in Germany for drug trafficking, which she suspects of the murder of the British girl.
Presented as “Christian B.”, he lived and worked for several years, between 1995 and 2007, in the Portuguese region of Algarve, where the girl disappeared. “For the German police to make this information public, it is certainly that they must have other elements,” said Rogério Alves.
A parallel with another disappearance
German courts are also looking for a link with the suspect and the disappearance of a girl in 2015. Inga, 5, disappeared in a forest in the Sachsen-Anhalt region during an excursion with her family. The investigation and numerous searches never made it possible to find the child. According to local newspaper and magazine Der Spiegel, Christian B. owns a dilapidated property in this region and is said to have been nearby when Inga disappeared.
The investigation is thus reopened: “We will check if there are new indications in relation to the man suspected of murder,” said a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Stendal, in eastern Germany. , to the local newspaper Marburger Volksstimme.
A file that has remained open for years
Madeleine McCann, she had disappeared from her room on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, in the small seaside resort of Praia da Luz, in the South of Portugal, where she was staying on vacation with her family. German police do not rule out the possibility that he broke into the McCanns’ apartment for theft and, once there, decided to kidnap the little girl.
After 14 months of controversial investigations, marked in particular by the indictment of the girl’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, finally cleared, the Portuguese police had closed the case in 2008 before reopening the file five years later.
“The criminal investigation had been classified but the file remained open (…) At any time, new elements could arise, “said the lawyer. Hans Christian Wolters, spokesman for the Brunswick Public Prosecutor’s Office (Germany), said on Thursday that the suspect was suspected of murder. “We assume that the little girl is dead,” he said. “It’s a possibility,” reacted the McCanns’ Portuguese lawyer. “Either he (German prosecutor) knows it’s the truth and he has to explain why. (…) But I don’t think they have any evidence ”of the girl’s death.
