A court in the city of Braunschweig in Germany has announced that it will not hear the case of Christian Brickner, who is accused of rape and has been officially identified as a suspect in the case Madeline McCannas stated in today’s Bild newspaper report.

The court ruled it lacked jurisdiction to try the case and lifted the arrest warrant against him, Bild reported citing Brickner’s lawyer, Friedrich Felser.

German prosecutors announced last year that they had indicted Brickner for several sex offenses they believe he committed in Portugal between December 28, 2000 and June 11, 2017.

The court was not immediately available for comment.

THE Madeline McCann disappeared on the evening of May 3, 2007, aged 3, from her bed at a holiday complex where she was staying with her family in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve region of Portugal, sparking what one newspaper called the most high-profile disappearance case in modern history.

Her fate remains unknown. In 2020, the German prosecutor’s office announced that she was presumed dead and identified Brickner as responsible for her disappearance.