Court rules that suspect in Madeleine McCann disappearance can leave Germany

BERLIN AP A man under probe in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann is allowed to leave Germany a court commented Monday overturning one of the conditions under which he was distributed after serving a sentence in an unrelated matter The German national who has been identified by media as Christian Br ckner was published in mid-September after serving a sentence that stemmed from his conviction for the rape of a -year-old American woman in Portugal A court in Hildesheim at the time imposed conditions for a five-year period including that he wear an electronic ankle monitor and document regularly to probation services and remain resident in Germany On Monday a higher state court in Celle reported that it upheld greater part of those conditions imposed in the Oct ruling but overturned the stipulation that he must reside in Germany It disclosed that interfered with European Union citizens freedom of movement within the -nation bloc It added that it would in principle be doable to issue a temporary ban on the man leaving Germany for example to arrange technical matters or to ban him from going to specific regions but that the lower court in Hildesheim would have to decide exactly what arrangements to make In June German prosecutors disclosed the man was being investigated on suspicion of murder in connection with McCann s disappearance from an apartment complex in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz They disclosed they assumed the girl was dead Police have since carried out more searches in Portugal where the man spent countless years But the suspect who has denied any involvement in the three-year-old s disappearance has not been charged in the incident The assessment wasn t affected by his release Friedrich F lscher the man s lawyer has noted charges would have been filed against his client long ago if there had been sufficient evidence Source