The prime suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann can face trial for unrelated sexual offences, a German court was told on Tuesday.
In April, the regional court in Brunswick, north Germany, said it could not hear the case against Christian B because the suspect's last known address was in a different part of the country.
However, a higher court in Brunswick ruled on Tuesday that there was insufficient evidence of another place of residence, after prosecutors appealed the decision.
“The regional court of Brunswick has local jurisdiction for the charges and must decide on the opening of proceedings,” the higher regional court said in a statement.
Christian B is already behind bars, serving a seven-year sentence for raping a 72-year-old US tourist in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in 2005.
He is also the main suspect in the disappearance of the then three-year-old Maddie from a holiday apartment at Praia da Luz in 2007.
Brunswick prosecutors have said they believe Christian B murdered the girl, but he has yet to face any charges in the McCann case.
As part of their investigations, Brunswick prosecutors last year charged him with three counts of rape and two sexual offences against children in Portugal – unrelated to McCann – between 2000 and 2017.
The Madeleine McCann case – in pictures
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Kate and Gerry McCann display a poster of their missing daughter Madeleine at a press conference in June 2007, a month after she disappeared in Praia da Luz, Portugal. All photos: Getty Images -
An aerial view of the resort and surrounding area where Madeleine McCann went missing in Praia da Luz. -
British tourists look down a well while searching for Madeleine McCann in wasteland in May 2007. -
Everton fans hold a banner appealing for the safe return of Madeleine McCann before a Premier League match in May 2007. She was a supporter of the club. -
Kate McCann sits on board a private jet owned by Sir Philip Green bound for Rome and an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, at Faro Airport, Portugal in May 2007. -
A mother and her children show their support for the missing girl in Rothley, the McCanns' town, in May 2007. -
An appeal is displayed on the scoreboard at the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in May 2007. -
Kate and Gerry McCann hold an outfit, similar to the one Madeleine was wearing on the day she went missing, at a press conference in June 2007 in Berlin. -
Pupils at Bankhead Primary School release yellow balloons for Madeleine McCann in June 2007 in Glasgow, Scotland. About 400 were released, each with a tag attached containing appeal information. -
Kate McCann listens to her husband Gerry speak during a press conference in June 2007 in Madrid, Spain. -
Gerry and Kate McCann leave a hotel on route to an interview with television crews in August 2007 in Praia da Luz. -
Kate and Gerry McCann arrive back in the UK from Faro in September 2007. The McCanns had been made formal suspects in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine. -
Kate and Gerry McCann speak in front of an age-progressed police image of their daughter during a news conference to mark the fifth anniversary of her disappearance, in May 2012 in London. -
Luis Mota Carmo (L), head of the Policia Judiciaria in the Algarve, speaks to British Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood as scrubland in in Praia da Luz is searched, in June 2014. -
Police search scrubland in June 2014 in Praia da Luz. -
British detectives arrive at Faro Police Station in December 2014 in Portugal, to observe questionings by Portuguese police of 11 people as part of the investigation into the disappearance. -
Robert Murat and his wife Michaela Walczuch leave Faro's Police Station after being interviewed as witnesses in December 2014 in Faro. -
Kate and Gerry McCann are interviewed by the BBC in April 2017. -
A police officer erects fencing around an allotment that belonged to Christian Brueckner, who was named as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, in July 2020 in Hannover, Germany. -
Police dig at the allotment in Hannover in July 2020.
Judges in Brunswick must now decide whether to launch a trial over these charges.
Brunswick prosecutors welcomed Tuesday's ruling on the jurisdiction issue, with spokesman Christian Wolters saying it had also “brought clarity for the Maddie case”.
The investigations into the McCann case were still ongoing, Mr Wolters told AFP.
Maddie went missing a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a tapas bar near the apartment.
Despite a huge international manhunt and global media attention, no trace of her has been found and no one has been charged over her disappearance.
In 2020, German prosecutors revealed they were investigating Christian B in connection with the case, saying they had “concrete evidence” he killed Maddie.
In May, investigators carried out a three-day search at a reservoir in southern Portugal, at the request of German prosecutors, in the hopes of finding clues into Maddie's disappearance.
Brunswick prosecutors afterwards said “a number of objects” were secured during the search, but that it was too soon to determine any link with the McCann case.
“New investigation results, including those related to the search operation in Portugal, are not yet available,” Mr Wolters told AFP on Tuesday.
