The decision means the authorities in the city of Braunschweig will have no jurisdiction over the case of Madeleine, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three, lawyer Friedrich Fulscher said.

Mr Fulscher confirmed that an arrest warrant against him had been revoked.

Prosecutors said last year that they had charged Christian B with three offences of aggravated rape and two offences of sexual abuse of children between December 2000 and June 2011, in Portugal.

The charges were not directly linked to the McCann case, but having revoked the warrant for Christian B's arrest, the court can no longer be expected to consider the case.

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Christian B, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region of Portugal from where Madeleine went missing.

He was reported as an official suspect in the case last year but has always denied being involved in the disappearance.

In June 2020, German police said that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Christian B was likely responsible for it, but he has not been charged with any crime related to the disappearance.