A man under investigation for the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann will stand trial in Germany in February on five separate sexual assault charges, a court said on Thursday.
The court in the German city of Braunschweig set Feb. 16 as the start date for the trial.
Under German privacy rules, a spokesperson would not give the name of the suspect, who is charged with three counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual abuse of children in Portugal between Dec. 12, 2000 and June 11, 2017
The key suspect
Convicted child abuser and drug trader Christian Brueckner, who is behind bars in Germany for raping a woman in the same area of the Algarve region of Portugal from where Madeleine went missing in 2007, was formally identified as an official suspect in the McCann case in April 2022.
German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead. Brueckner is the subject of an ongoing murder investigation in connection with the case.