The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.

German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.

“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”

Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.

Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.

Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.

Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.

He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.

“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”

Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.

In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.

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The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.

If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.

He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.

Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.

Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.

The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.

The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.

Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.

“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.

“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.

“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”

Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been given a 14-year jail sentence in a land corruption case, his lawyer has said.

The verdict in the case followed allegations of possible bribery involving land, which was exchanged for favours by real estate developer Malik Riaz Hussain.

It is linked to the Al Qadir Trust that Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi established while he was in office. Prosecutors say this was a front for the former prime minister.

It is the largest case of alleged financial wrongdoing against Khan and was delivered by an anti-corruption court in a prison in Rawalpindi, where the former prime minister has been jailed since August 2023.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party insists the land was not for personal gain, and instead was meant for a spiritual educational institution.

Bibi was also convicted in the land corruption case. Local outlet Geo News reported that she was taken into custody shortly after the verdict, having been out on bail.

The PTI said in a statement: “Whilst we wait for detailed decision, it’s important to note that, the Al Qadir Trust case against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi lacks any solid foundation and is bound to collapse.”

Omar Ayub Khan, a senior PTI leader, added: “This is a bogus case, and we will approach an appeals court against this decision.”

The 72-year-old, also a World Cup-winning cricketer, was removed from office in 2022 by a vote of no confidence. He claims he has faced more than 150 criminal cases since then.

The land corruption case centres on the use of £190m that the UK repatriated to Pakistan in 2019 after Hussain forfeited cash and assets in a British criminal probe.

Khan was alleged to have then used the money to pay fines against the tycoon for the illegal acquisition of government lands at below-market value.

Former interior minister Rana Sanaullah alleged in 2023 that Hussain gave land in Jhelum and Islamabad to the Al Qadir Trust in exchange for that favour.

After Khan’s sentence, Pakistan’s information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said it was the country’s largest corruption case.

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Including the Al Qadir Trust corruption case, Khan has been charged with graft and misuse of power, and has also been accused of inciting violence against the state after being removed from office.

He has been acquitted or had his sentence suspended in most cases, including ones for leaked state secrets and two other corruption sentences.

In July last year, Khan and Bibi were acquitted of unlawful marriage charges, only for the former prime minister to be arrested again over three cases linked to violence against the military and other state bodies in Lahore on 9 May 2023.

Violent protests have broken sporadically since Khan was jailed.

In November, at least six people were killed and almost a thousand protesters were arrested over demonstrations to free the former prime minister.

Khan’s latest conviction comes just a day after the PTI held formal reconciliatory talks with the government in a bid to restore stability.

In Moscow on Friday, a couple of days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president, two of the West’s main adversaries – Russia and Iran – will sign a strategic partnership pact.

It will deepen a relationship that has blossomed since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Should the West be worried? Not according to Russia.

“This agreement, like our treaty with North Korea, is not directed against anyone,” foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week, referring to a similar pact Moscow signed with Pyongyang last year.

That treaty, however, included a mutual defence clause, with both countries pledging to come to the other’s aid if needed.

It instantly rang alarm bells in Washington, Kyiv, Seoul and beyond.

And now, little more than six months later, Ukraine says it has captured two North Korean soldiers on the battlefield – proof it claims that Russia has deployed thousands of Pyongyang’s troops to the frontline.

It suggests the West’s fears were well-founded.

I expect the partnership with Iran will cause similar concern.

“Russia’s foreign policy major organising principle is now the prosecution of its war in Ukraine,” Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, told Sky News.

“Every country is assessed through the lens of what this country can bring to the battlefield effort. How can this country help Russia withstand economic pressure? And how can this relationship be instrumentalised by hard men in the Kremlin to punish the West?

“Iran neatly fits into the category.”

The US and UK have already accused Tehran of providing Moscow with ballistic missiles and drones for use against Ukraine.

Both Russia and Iran deny the claim.

But defence is an area where the two countries will cooperate more closely as a result of this new partnership, which Mr Gabuev describes as the “symbolic icing on the cake”.

“The real cooperation is the underwater part of the iceberg, where Russia purchases drones, and designs for drones and missiles and various types of weapons that it needs for the battlefield in Ukraine,” he said.

“In return, Iran gets Russian technical expertise.”

According to the Kremlin, the timing for the treaty signing is purely coincidental, and has nothing to do with Mr Trump’s inauguration.

“Let the conspiracy theorists entertain themselves,” said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Coincidence or not, the optics are convenient for Russia.

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The pact serves as a pointed reminder to the West that the world is changing, and that, in Moscow’s view, the US-led rules-based global order is crumbling.

Mr Putin often speaks of his desire to create a multipolar world, free from Western imperialism and the hegemony of America.

He wants to show that his attempts are working, despite the West’s efforts to isolate Russia.

First North Korea, now Iran – solidarity through sanctions.