Main suspect in Madeleine McCann case to be released from prison in Germany

The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is expected to be freed today as German authorities admit they no longer have legal justification to hold him in jail.

- Kate Connolly

Christian Brückner, 49, is due to be released from prison in Sehnde, northern Germany, after serving a sentence for the rape of an American woman, then 72, in Portugal in 2005.

The rape took place in Praia da Luz, the holiday resort on the southern Portuguese coast where the three-year-old British toddler disappeared 18 months later.

German prosecutors say that Brückner, a German national, remains their prime suspect in the disappearance, which they are treating as a murder inquiry. British police call him a suspect in their investigation, which they continue to treat as a missing person case.

Madeleine went missing on 3 May 2007 while on holiday with her parents. She vanished from the apartment in which the family was staying, while her parents were at a restaurant close by. Her younger twin siblings had been in the room with her.