The Metropolitan Police is pushing for Madeline McCann suspect Christian Brueckner to be extradited to the UK to be charged in her disappearance.
This comes as Brueckner was released from a German prison in September for an unrelated rape crime.
As the UK is no longer a member of the EU there are a few hurdles that have to be passed before Brueckner can be extradited.
'Next year marks 20 years since Madeleine McCann went missing. If the evidence is strong enough to extradite the prime suspect and try him here, that is what we would seek to do,' the Scotland Yard insidersaid to the Telegraph.
'Clearly, there are numerous hurdles but our priority at the moment is to amass the strongest evidence we can against that prime suspect.'
A possibility is that British and German police could hand the evidence to Portuguese authorities, which, as an EU state, could extradite Brueckner.
Nick Vamos, the former head of extradition at the CPS, said: 'Germany participates in the streamlined EU-wide extradition arrangements with the UK that were agreed after Brexit.'
'However, Germany is one of 10 EU countries that chose to impose a 'nationality bar' and refuses to extradite its own citizens,' Vamos said.
'This is a constitutional bar under German law so cannot be lifted or waived however serious the offence or strong the evidence.'
'Brueckner could still be extradited to the UK if he left Germany, or to Portugal if the authorities there chose to prosecute him. It would be open to the Met Police to share evidence with the Portuguese for this purpose,' Vamos continued.
Source: International Business Times UK
