As of: February 16, 2024, 10:23 a.m
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View of the main entrance to the Braunschweig Regional Court.
© Moritz Frankenberg/dpa
The trial begins in Germany for sexual crimes allegedly committed in Portugal - against a man who is also suspected of murder in the Maddie case.
After a delay at the beginning, there is an immediate interruption.
Braunschweig - The trial against the German suspected of murder in the Maddie case for five sexual offenses has begun.
The 47-year-old Christian B. is accused of three serious rapes and two cases of sexual abuse of children.
The suspect is said to have committed the crimes in Portugal between the end of December 2000 and June 2017.
The Braunschweig public prosecutor's office charged him in October 2022 after several years of complex investigations in several European countries.
At the start of the trial on Friday morning, the defense filed a request for bias against a female lay judge, whereupon the hearing was interrupted and was scheduled to continue at 10:30 a.m.
The suspect has been in focus since the summer of 2020, after German investigators surprisingly announced that they suspected murder of the convicted sex offender in the case of the missing Maddie from Great Britain.
The then three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday resort in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in May 2007.
The case made headlines around the world.
However, it is not the subject of the current trial in Braunschweig.
Nevertheless, the crowds in front of the Braunschweig regional court on Friday morning were so great that the originally planned start at 9 a.m. could not be kept, as reporters from the dpa news agency reported on site.
Long queues formed in front of the building and all visitors had to undergo extensive security measures before entering.
While the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office seeks to convict the defendant for all of the accused crimes, defense attorney Friedrich Fülscher assumes his client's innocence and wants to achieve acquittals.
It is the presumption of innocence.
dpa