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.

       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.

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       Brueckner has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

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