German higher regional court decides lower court can hear hear case against McCann suspect

BERLIN (AP) — A German higher regional court has ruled that a state court in Braunschweig can hear a sex offenses case against a man who also is a suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, overruling the state court’s earlier decision that it wasn’t responsible. The Braunschweig higher regional court said Tuesday that the state court had wrongly declared itself without jurisdiction when it said in April that it wasn’t responsible. Prosecutors in Braunschweig in October charged the German suspect in his mid-40s in several separate cases but he hasn’t been charged in the McCann case. He has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.