(NewsNation) — The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has refused to be interviewed by British police ahead of his release from a German prison.
Christian Brückner, 49, is set to be released tomorrow after serving a sentence for raping an American woman in Portugal in 2005.
The crime occurred in Praia da Luz, the coastal holiday resort where Madeleine would disappear 18 months later.
The McCann family was on vacation in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, when Madeleine disappeared. Her parents had left the then three-year-old and her younger twin siblings in the ground-floor apartment they were staying in while they went out to eat with friends.
The group took turns checking on the children every thirty minutes or so, and the patio doors to the apartment were left unlocked. Madeleine was discovered missing at 10 p.m. when her mother went to check on her.
Brückner has been considered a primary suspect by both UK and German police, who have been investigating him since 2017.
German police are investigating the case as a murder, while UK police still consider it a missing persons investigation.
Witnesses say Brückner confessed, and cell phone data puts him in the area at the time Madeleine disappeared. But there is not sufficient evidence for the German police to hold him.
Brückner has a history of sex offenses against children as well as other crimes, including burglary and drug trafficking.