Extradition of Greek Siemens suspect halted

Munich/Athens - The extradition to Greece of a former Siemens AG director - held on remand over bribery charges in a Munich prison - has been temporarily suspended, lawyers said on Monday. Michalis Christoforakos, former head of the industrial giant's Greek operations, filed a constitutional appeal to his planned extradition, according to Munich state prosecutors. It was now for the Federal Constitutional court to reach a ruling before further decisions about the planned extradition could be made, the public prosecutor's office said. The Greek manager is being held over allegations of payoffs made by Siemens to Greek telecomms operator O.T.E., to secure a large contract for the Athens Olympics in 2004. 'We will do everything to achieve the extradition of Christoforakos,' Greek Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos told Greek state television channel NET. According to a report by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Christoforakos had confessed to the bribery charges, adding that sums had been paid to the two leading political parties in Greece, PASOK and the New Democracy Party. Both parties rejected the claims, nevertheless their offices were on 'high alert,' in case of Christoforakos' extradition, Athens-based Ta Nea newspaper reported. The former head of Siemens Hellas, who holds a German passport, fled Greece mid-May. He was arrested in June, in the southern German state of Bavaria. The Munich Regional Court had agreed to Christoforakos' extradition for crimes committed after April 18, 2003. State prosecutors subsequently agreed to the ruling, and made preliminary arrangements to hand him over to Greece. Greek authorities have charged a total of six former Siemens Greece officials, as well a former official with the country's largest telecom company OTE. Siemens is under investigation in several countries over allegations of bribery and corruption in its communications sector. The company launched its own investigations and is cooperating with foreign officials in all investigations outside of Germany.