Asked by The Telegraph whether Brexit had effectively blocked the possible extradition of Brueckner, who was jailed in 2019 for the rape of a 72-year-old woman, the spokesman replied: “Yes, that is the case”. <\/p>\n
Article 16 of the German constitution states that “no German may be extradited to a foreign country,” with exceptions only made for EU member states and international courts such as The Hague.<\/p>\n
Before Brexit, German nationals could be automatically extradited to the UK under the European Arrest Warrant system, which required EU member states to surrender suspects to one another with minimal legal barriers.<\/p>\n
Brueckner has repeatedly denied any involvement in Madeleine\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters publicly identified Brueckner six years ago as the prime suspect in the British girl\u2019s 2007 disappearance from Praia da Luz in Portugal\u2019s Algarve region.<\/p>\n
![\"Christian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778025191_340_christian-brueckner.jpg\")
German officials have said Christian Brueckner cannot be extradited to Britain under its constitution<\/p>\n
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GETTY<\/p>\n
But despite the increased interest in the case, the German prosecutor does not believe Brueckner will be extradited to Britain.<\/p>\n
He told The Mirror: “I suspect this is just hot air again. Extradition would require an arrest warrant. But there certainly isn\u2019t one.<\/p>\n
“Like all countries, Germany only extradites individuals if there is an arrest warrant against them. And I actually think it\u2019s out of the question that there is an arrest warrant against [Brueckner] in the Maddie case.”<\/p>\n
And sources close to Brueckner’s legal team said they believe the extradition efforts were likely to go away, adding that the odds of his extradition were “non-existent”.<\/p>\n
MADELEINE MCCANN – READ THE LATEST:<\/p>\n
![\"Madeleine](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778025191_200_madeleine-mccann.jpg\")
They told The Mail: “We have been here many times before, and nothing has ever happened; we are sure this attempt will go the same way.<\/p>\n
“If the UK authorities have any evidence and if they are so sure of it, why don’t they share with the Germans so that they can look at it and press their own charges.”<\/p>\n
It remains a possibility for German and British authorities to hand their evidence over to Portugal, where Brueckner could be extradited and charged.<\/p>\n
Brueckner, freed from a seven-year prison sentence in Hanover in September 2025, and has been living rough throughout Germany since.<\/p>\n
![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/kate-and-gerry-mccann.png\")
He was ordered to wear an ankle tag and most recently was believed to be living in a tent in the woods of Kiel.<\/p>\n
A Met spokesman previously told GB News: “The Met\u2019s investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been active since 2011. A dedicated team continues to examine the events of the evening of 3 May 2007 in Praia da Luz, while supporting and updating Madeleine\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
“As part of ongoing enquiries, we remain in close working discussion with policing colleagues in Germany and Portugal.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to pursue any viable lines of enquiry.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madeleine McCann murder suspect Christian Brueckner cannot be brought to Britain for trial because of Brexit, German authorities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,2101,12487,18,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-29508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-germany","10":"tag-madeleine-mccann","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116524666229846190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}