LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Prosecutors in southern Portugal are formally accusing a suspect in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a British girl who disappeared nearly 15 years ago while on a family vacation in the southern European country.

A statement on Thursday by the Public Ministry district of Faro, the largest city in Portugal’s Algarve region, did not name the suspect but said they were acting on a request by German authorities and in coordination with English investigators.

Christian Brueckner, at the time of his arrest in 2018. (Carabinieri via AP)

In mid-2020, Germany’s police identified Christian Brueckner, a German citizen, as a suspect in the case.

McCann was 3 years old at the time of her disappearance from an apartment where her family was vacationing in the Algarve seaside town of Praia da Luz.

Brueckner, 45, is serving a sentence on drug offenses in a German prison and has a pending seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal. The rape also took place in Praia da Luz.

Brueckner has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

FILE – In this May 2, 2012 file photo, Kate and Gerry McCann pose for the media with a missing poster depicting an age progression computer generated image of their daughter Madeleine at nine years of age, to mark her birthday and the 5th anniversary of her disappearance during a family vacation in southern Portugal in May 2007, during a news conference in London. Madeleine McCann’s family is hoping for closure in the case after a key suspect was identified in Germany and as authorities there say they believe the missing British girl is dead. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

Investigators in the nearby town of Portimao are leading the probe with the assistance of the Judiciary Police, the prosecutors’ statement said.