process
Maddie trial: Defendant remains silent about allegations
After a delay, the charges against Christian B. are now to be read out on the second day of the trial. photo
© Julian Stratenschulte/dpa Pool/dpa
On the second day of the trial against Christian B., the focus is on allegations of five sexual crimes. The 47-year-old German wants to remain silent. The defense assumes an acquittal.
The Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office had previously presented the allegations against the German in just under 30 minutes. The sex offender, who has been convicted several times, is accused of three serious rapes and sexual abuse of children in two cases in Portugal.
The Würzburg native has been in focus since the summer of 2020 because he is a murder suspect in the Maddie case. The case of the missing, then three-year-old British woman Madeleine McCann caused horror around the world, but is not the subject of the current trial in Braunschweig.
The process, which was accompanied by great media interest and many security precautions, was initially dominated the previous week by a scandal surrounding a biased female lay judge. A separate case is now underway against the woman who is said to have spread a call to kill former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on social media on suspicion of publicly calling for criminal offenses.