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Christian Brückner has already been convicted of criminal offenses several times
February 16, 2024
Attention: This report contains details of the crimes committed by the defendant that may be disturbing.
Defendant Christian Brückner's lawyers claimed that the judge in question expressed “radical” views and called for violence against Bolsonaro in social media posts published in August 2019.
In the judge's message, reproduced in English, Portuguese and German, the judge said that Bolsonaro was “the devil,” that “he destroys everything” and encouraged acts of violence against the former president.
She is part of a panel of five judges responsible for hearing the case, including three professional judges and two citizens who serve as lay judges.
In Germany, where there are no juries, lay judges play a similar role in representing the public in the case.
One of Brückner's lawyers, Philipp Marfort, told the BBC that his client had instructed them to “exclude” the lay judge.
After a short court break, it was agreed to stay the proceedings while the claims were examined.
The trial is expected to continue in a week.
Suspect in Madeleine's disappearance
Brückner was in court on Friday for three rapes and two cases of sexual abuse from 2000 and 2017. The five cases occurred in Portugal.
Madeleine was 3 years old when she disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve, Portugal, in 2007.
The case had a major impact around the world and is still unsolved after 17 years.
Brückner was not investigated immediately after the disappearance. At the time, Portuguese police considered the girl's parents as suspects.
Kate and Gerry McCann's suspicions were dropped in 2008 and the couple later received an apology for the way the case was handled.
Brückner was named by German investigators in June 2020 as the main suspect in the girl's disappearance, in an investigation that treated the case as a homicide.
He was subsequently officially considered a suspect by the Portuguese authorities, but was never formally charged, and the full details of the German investigation were never made public.
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Madeleine McCann's disappearance remains unsolved
Allegations of rape and sexual abuse
- The rape of an elderly woman between 70 and 80 years old in her summer apartment;
- The rape of a teenager aged at least 14 years old in the house where she lived in Praia de Luz, between 2000 and 2006;
- The rape of an Irish woman whose summer apartment in Praia da Rocha was allegedly raided in 2004.
In the three rape cases, Brückner is accused of whipping the victims and filming the attacks.
- The sexual abuse of a 10yearold German girl on the beach in the village of Salema in 2007.
This happened three and a half weeks before Madeleine McCann disappeared.
- An 11yearold girl was forced to watch a sexual act in a playground in Bartolomeu de Messines during a festival in 2017.
The trial is taking place in the northwest German state of Lower Saxony because Brückner was last officially registered as a resident there.
What's happening now
According to the German penal code, if found guilty, he could face a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years.
Brückner's lawyer had previously stated that the charges were based on “questionable” facts.
He recently told the BBC he expected his client to remain silent for most of the trial, but stressed that “no negative conclusions” could be drawn from it.
Brückner was born in Bavaria, Germany in December 1976 and reportedly spent time under medical treatment in his youth.
According to prosecutors, between 1995 and 2007 he lived “more or less permanently” in the Algarve and did odd jobs.
The BBC had access to parts of his Portuguese criminal case, which showed he had been convicted on several occasions for petty crimes, robberies and rape.
Brückner is serving a sevenyear prison sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72yearold American tourist in Praia da Luz.
This trial could decide whether he remains behind bars after this sentence, which is expected to end in December 2026.