Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

German ‘Maddie’ suspect refuses to speak about case

The German man suspected of kidnapping and murdering British girl Madeleine McCann has refused to speak about the case, one of his lawyers told German television.

Published: 11 June 2020 09:11 CEST
German 'Maddie' suspect refuses to speak about case
The suspect Christian B. is currently serving a sentence in Kiel prison. Photo: DPA

“Christian B. is not making any statements on the case for the moment and we ask you to understand that as his defence, we won't either,” Friedrich Fülscher told rolling news channel NTV.

German police raised hopes last Wednesday that the 13-year mystery over three-year-old “Maddie” could finally be solved when they revealed they are investigating a 43-year-old German man over her disappearance from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007.

German police called the man a “murder suspect” who may have killed the young girl.

The suspect, named as Christian B. by German media, has a history of previous sex offences including child abuse and rape.

Currently held at Kiel prison in the north of Germany, the suspect is serving out a jail term for drug trafficking.

The suspect has had to be moved to an isolation cell for his safety, said Claus Christian Claussen, the regional justice minister of Schleswig-Holstein state.

He is not allowed to leave his cell unless accompanied by guards and not at the same time as other detainees to avoid attacks against him, said the minister during a hearing of the regional parliament.

Defence lawyers who had been charged with his defence have quit their mandate without giving a reason.

They have been replaced by a new team who have threatened lawsuits against their client's acquaintances who described him as aggressive and suspicious.

Madeleine McCann's parents in 2002. Photo: DPA

READ ALSO: What we know so far about German suspect in Maddie case

Mystery remains

Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment on May 3rd, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years.

Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her kidnapping and no trace of her has been found.

READ ALSO: German prosecutors assume Madeleine McCann is dead as they investigate new suspect

After Christian B. was identified as a new suspect, German police have said they are investigating if there is a link between the man and the case of another missing child in Germany.

The five-year-old girl named Inga from the town of Schönebeck in Saxony-Anhalt in 2015 disappeared without a trace in the woods while on an outing with her family.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

SHOW COMMENTS