The trial of a suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann on unrelated sexual abuse charges was adjourned within moments of opening after the defence cited social media posts indicating a lay judge might be biased.
Barely had suspect Christian Brueckner taken his seat, when the court postponed the trial by a week to rule on whether the lay judge should be removed.
The court did not name the judge.
In tweets, cited by Brueckner's lawyer, she had allegedly called for the killing of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and of an animal torturer.
"Such a lay judge has no business participating in a fair criminal trial," defence lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher told reporters outside the court in Brunswick, northern Germany.
German media reported that lawyers also cited the lay judge's work as a child psychologist as a potential source of bias in a case involving the sexual abuse of several children.
Brueckner, who is already serving a prison term in Germany for raping a woman in the part of Portugal's Algarve region where Madeleine went missing, faces three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children committed between 2000 and 2017.
Brueckner has denied being involved in Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 and has not been charged with any crime related to it.
Among the charges he was due to answer today were the rape of a woman in her 70s in her home in the Algarve, the sexual abuse of a girl aged at least 14, and the 2004 rape, at knifepoint in her home, of an Irish woman woman - an act he is accused of recording on video.
"The charges were not read," said court spokesperson Lisa Rust. "The chamber suspended the hearing."
Portuguese prosecutors investigating the disappearance of Madeleine identified as an official suspect a person whose details corresponded to those of Brueckner two years ago.
German police said in June 2020 that she was presumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible for it.
Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom on 3 May 2007, during a family holiday while her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz.
