The alleged crimes: the grotesque imprisonment and rape of a woman and a teenage girl in Portugal. The victims: unidentified. The dates: also unidentified.
The evidence: video tapes that may or may not have once existed but now certainly do not, as described by a pair of rambling witnesses.
The verdict: not only a complete acquittal but a ruling that questioned whether reliable witness testimony was even possible in a case so overburdened with attention and conjecture.
Christian Brueckner has been acquitted of allegedly committing several sexual offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017
CLEMENS BILAN/EPA
The acquittal of Christian Brueckner has implications that go beyond his trial for alleged historical sex offences.
It raises questions about whether prosecutors will be able to convict or even charge him in the case that brought the international media circus to Braunschweig regional court in the first