Janice R. Andrews
Today, one of the magistrates engaged in the highly awaited trial of Christian Brückner—the main suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance—was discovered to have supported the assassination of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Brückner appeared in a German court facing three charges of rape and two of child sexual abuse. He was already serving a seven-year term for a previous rape case. But within the first hour of the trial, things went haywire when it was discovered that the case’s lay judge, Britta Thielen-Donckel, had made social media posts advocating for Bolsonaro’s execution.
Thielen-Donckel was ruled unsuitable to testify by presiding judge Christina Engelmann, and as a result, the trial was postponed until February 23 in order to select a substitute magistrate.
Brückner, who has not been legally prosecuted, continues to assert his innocence despite being named by Portuguese and German authorities as the key suspect in Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance. There will be 26 individual sessions during the trial, which is anticipated to run four months.
Convicted of pedophilia, Brückner, 47, showed up in court wearing a grey suit jacket over a purple shirt. He is facing five more counts on top of his existing term, which expires in 2027. The charges include accusations of sexual abuse and defamation against prison officials in addition to rape allegations ranging from assaults on adolescents to elderly women.
The trial was called “ridiculous” by Brückner, who also expressed confidence that he would be fully acquitted of all accusations according to Friedrich Fulscher, his attorney.
German prosecutors have stated that they believe Madeleine McCann is dead in the high-profile case of her 2007 abduction from the Algarve tourist town of Praia da Luz. It was in the area that Brückner resided when she vanished.
The trial’s adjournment raises further complex issues in a case that has been the focus of attention worldwide for more than ten years, leaving many questions unanswered.
