Thursday June 25, 06:35 PM
Former Siemens Greece head arrested in Germany
FRANKFURT (AFP) - The former head of Siemens (Xetra: 723610 - news) in Greece was arrested Thursday in southern Germany on corruption charges, prosecutors in Munich told AFP.
"Michalis Christophorakos was arrested early this morning, at 6:30 am (0430 GMT)," a spokesman for the prosecutors office, Alfons Obermaeier said.
The former Siemens boss was "hiding in a private house" 70 kilometres (44 miles) south of Munich, where the German industrial giant has its headquarters.
He was turned in by someone living in the area, a statement said.
An international arrest warrant for Christophorakos was issued by Greek authorities on May 20 along with a request for his extradition.
"He does not accept the extradition," the spokesman said, so the process could last "certainly more than four weeks."
Christophorakos, who has dual German and Greek nationality, says the charges against him are no longer valid under the German statute of limitations, the statement said.
Christophorakos was the general director of Siemens' Greek subsidiary from 1996 to 2007 and is suspected along with three German former directors of paying bribes to obtain a contract with the telecommunications operator OTE (Stuttgart: 903465 - news) .
The German suspects have already been apprehended.
Other kick-backs were allegedly paid to Greek politicians in exchange for Siemens being included in work on security systems for the Athens Olympic Games in August 2004.
The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung has estimated the illegal payments amounted to around 100 million euros (140 million dollars).
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