The parents of Madeleine McCann say they have welcomed the news Christian Brueckner has been made an official suspect in the case, but they still hold out hope their daughter is alive.
Brueckner, a convicted rapist, was named as an official suspect in the case on Friday NZ time.
He was first revealed as the prime suspect in the case back in June 2020, more than 13 years after the three-year-old went missing from an apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, sparking one of the most followed missing persons cases in history.
Brueckner was living in a campervan close to Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve when three-year-old Madeleine disappeared in May 2007.
Investigators said last year Brueckner made a phone call just before Madeleine's disappearance near the tapas bar her parents were at.
In a statement Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann said they "welcomed the news that the Portuguese authorities have declared a German man an arguido.
"Even though the possibility may be slim, we have not given up hope that Madeleine is still alive and we will be reunited with her."
May 3 sees the 15th anniversary of Madeleine disappearing and Portugal has a 15-year statute of limitations for crimes with a prison sentence of 10 years or more.
It's the first time anyone has been formally designated an official suspect in the case since the child's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were named suspects after her disappearance 2007. They were later cleared due to a lack of evidence.
In an interview last year, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said he was "100 percent convinced" Brueckner had killed the child.
"It is now possible that we could charge. We have that evidence now. But it’s not just about charging him. We want to charge him with the best body of evidence possible."
Brueckner has denied being involved with McCann's vanishing, calling himself an "innocent person" in a letter obtained by German media in June. Brueckner said the prosecutors were engaged in a "scandalous pre-denial campaign in the present against me as an innocent person" and were "not suitable for an office as a lawyer for the honest and trusting German people".
Brueckner was living in the area McCann went missing from at the time of her disappearance and has since been imprisoned for sexual contact with girls, drug crimes, and raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz. He's also been linked to other missing children cases.
