\n<\/p>\n
German authorities have confirmed that Brexit has effectively blocked any attempts to bring Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner to trial in Britain, dealing a blow to hopes of justice for a missing child, the Express understands.<\/p>\n
A German government spokesman said the country’s post-war constitution prohibits the extradition of suspects to countries outside the European Union. Asked whether Brexit sealed Bruckner’s fate, the spokesman said: “Yes, that is the case.”<\/p>\n
Article 16 of the German Constitution states that “no German may be extradited to a foreign country” \u2013 excluding only EU member states and bodies such as the Hague. German authorities say extradition to Britain is “generally barred by German constitutional law” since Britain left the EU.<\/p>\n
Before Brexit, the European Arrest Warrant allowed British authorities to secure the automatic transfer of suspects from Germany with few legal hurdles.<\/p>\n
The findings come days after Scotland Yard’s ambitions to prosecute Bruckner on British soil over the child’s disappearance were overturned – and serious doubts remain over whether the 49-year-old convicted pedophile will ever be held accountable in Britain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Scotland Yard is understood to be making fresh efforts to charge Brueckner ahead of the 20th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007. A senior officer is overseeing a renewed effort to bring a suspect to Britain to stand trial over the disappearance of a three-year-old boy.<\/p>\n
German prosecutors identified Bruckner as their prime suspect in the McCann case five years ago, and have since rejected the latest extradition attempt. \u201cI have good lawyers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A source close to his legal team told MailOnline that they are confident extradition will never happen. “We’ve been here many times before, and nothing has ever happened. We’re sure this effort will go the same way.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the British authorities have any evidence and if they are so confident about it, why don’t they share it with the Germans so they can look at it and make their own allegations?<\/p>\n
“German law prevents German citizens from being extradited to another country; they can only be tried in Germany, so the chances of this happening are slim to none.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Senior public prosecutor Han Wolters also cast doubt on the possibility. He said, “I suspect it’s hot air again. Extradition would require an arrest warrant. But there certainly isn’t one.”<\/p>\n
A second source close to Bruckner said: “He’s seen the news and is aware of it. He’s completely taken aback by it. As far as he’s concerned, he’s had years to bring the case against her, and failed. He’s pretty confident it’s not going anywhere any time soon, but still, he’s always been a cocky and self-confident guy.”<\/p>\n
In a separate development, The Telegraph reported that Bruckner is also being investigated over a violent brawl in the northern German port city of Kiel. This crime \u2013 known as “mutual assault” under German law \u2013 treats the suspect as both perpetrator and victim.<\/p>\n
A German police spokesman told The Telegraph that Kiel prosecutors had received a formal complaint and would decide whether charges should be pursued, though officials declined to elaborate. If found guilty, he can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German authorities have confirmed that Brexit has effectively blocked any attempts to bring Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner to trial in Britain, dealing a blow to hopes of justice for a missing child, the Express understands. A German government spokesman said the country’s post-war constitution prohibits the extradition of suspects to countries outside the European<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2207,4461,20569,6264,3905,12974,615,158],"class_list":{"0":"post-121290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-blames","9":"tag-blocking","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-extradition","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-madeleine","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-suspect"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121292,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121290\/revisions\/121292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}