The main suspect in the disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann will be released from prison in less than three weeks, authorities have told the BBC.
Christian Brueckner is in jail for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 and is due to be released in September if no further charges are brought.
He will be released by September 17 at the latest, the lead prosecutor investigating Madeleine’s disappearance Hans Christian Wolters has told the BBC.
The then-three-year-old disappeared from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz while on holiday with her family in 2007, in one of the highest-profile missing person cases.
She was left sleeping by her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and vanished as they went for dinner in a nearby restaurant. The couple had periodically checked on Madeleine and her younger twin siblings who had also been left sleeping.
Mr Wolters also told the BBC that Brueckner was dangerous, but the current legal situation means the German national must be released from prison without delay.
Brueckner "is not just our number one suspect, he's the only suspect", he said. "There is no-one else."
"We have evidence which speaks against [Brueckner], which indicates that he is responsible for the disappearance and the death of Madeleine McCann," he said.
"We haven't found anything in the last five years that exonerates [him]. We found evidence that strengthens our case. But in our view it's not strong enough to make a guilty verdict likely, and that's why so far we couldn't charge him or apply for an arrest warrant."
He added that Brueckner had recently been assessed by an expert as a danger to society.
Prosecutors have been applying restrictions to be imposed on him when he is released such as fitting Brueckner with an ankle tag. The conditions are expected to be decided at a court hearing behind closed doors, the BBC reported.
The case remains unsolved but German prosecutors have said there is evidence to suggest Brueckner may have been in the area when Madeleine went missing.
Brueckner has never been charged with any crime related to Madeleine’s disappearance and has denied being involved in the case.
Brueckner spent time in the Praia de Luz area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near a reservoir.
It comes as German and Portuguese investigators finished three days of searching a 120-acre stretch of land near Lagos, Portugal, in June as part of attempts to source evidence to implicate Brueckner.
In the searches, requested by German authorities, crews spent three days scouring scrubland and abandoned structures.
In October last year, he was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
