A German court said Thursday it did not have jurisdiction to try the prime suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann for unrelated sexual offences.
The regional tribunal in Brunswick, north Germany, said it had decided it was "not competent" to hear the case against Christian B. because his "last known address" in Germany was in another state, Saxony-Anhalt.
As Christian B. is already serving a prison sentence on another conviction, he will stay behind bars despite the lifting of the Brunswick arrest warrant, the court said.
Despite the court's decision, Brunswick prosecutor's office said it would continue investigations related to the Madeleine McCann case.
Prosecutors would also "carefully examine the reasons" given by the court and "probably" take the decision to appeal, the spokesman for Brunswick's prosecutors, Christian Wolters, added.
But defence lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher argued that "on the basis of the court's decision, the Brunswick justice system is also not competent in the 'Maddie' case," defence lawyer
Prosecutors in Brunswick had charged Christian B. in October last year with three counts of rape and two sexual offences against children -- unrelated to Maddie -- between December 28, 2000 and June 11, 2017 in Portugal.
Prosecutors in other regions of Germany where the suspect lived must now decide whether to pursue the charges and stake a claim to jurisdiction.
Christian B. is seen as the main suspect in the disappearance of the then three-year-old McCann from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
McCann went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.
Despite a huge international manhunt, no trace of her has been found and no one has been charged over her disappearance.
In June 2020, German prosecutors made the stunning revelation that they were investigating Christian B. in connection with the case, saying they had "concrete evidence" he killed Maddie.
According to German police, Christian B. lived in the Algarve region of Portugal between 1995 and 2007.
He is currently serving a seven-year sentence in Oldenburg, northern Germany, for raping a 72-year-old US tourist in Praia da Luz in 2005.
