BERLIN (Reuters) – A German man whom investigators suspect of murdering British toddler Madeleine McCann was injured while being taken to a parole hearing, a German court said on Tuesday.
The 43-year-old German, Christian B., lived in the Algarve region of Portugal when the toddler – who was three at the time – vanished from her bedroom in 2007. He is serving a sentence in Kiel in northern Germany for drug dealing.
The Braunschweig court said he sustained injuries to his ribs when law enforcement officers were putting ankle cuffs on him before a parole hearing on Monday.
German media including mass-circulation Bild and Der Spiegel had reported that Christian B. broke two ribs during the incident.
The court said he was treated in hospital and the parole hearing took place, and he was later returned to prison. The court gave no details of the injuries or the hearing.
“As the way in which he was to be shackled as well as the following course of events are the subject of further investigation, we cannot provide further information,” the court said.
Europe’s top court in September retroactively cleared his extradition to Germany from Italy over a rape charge.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
