Application for bias
Court replaces lay judge in trial against Maddie suspect
A vehicle carrying Christian B., the defendant in the Maddie trial, leaves an inner courtyard at the Braunschweig Regional Court
© Moritz Frankenberg / DPA
At the request of the defense lawyers of the repeatedly convicted sex offender Christian B., the Braunschweig regional court has excluded a female lay judge from the proceedings against the 47-year-old.
In the trial against the German suspect Christian B. In the case of the British girl Madeleine “Maddie” McCann, who disappeared in 2007, the court has excluded a female lay judge. The criminal chamber of the Braunschweig Regional Court granted the defense’s request for bias on Tuesday. She justified her decision with “doubts about the lay judge’s legal convictions and adherence to the law.”
Substitute lay judge for Maddie trial
The woman had called for the killing of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in online media. The public prosecutor’s office and the co-prosecution, which represents B.’s alleged victims, joined the defense’s application against the lay judge. The Braunschweig court announced that a replacement lay judge will now take her place.
The trial against the defendant B., which is to continue on Friday, involves several sexual crimes, but not the Maddie case. Maddie disappeared in 2007 while her parents were having dinner at a restaurant in Portugal. Despite extensive searches and numerous calls from her parents, the case was never solved and Maddie remained untraceable.