VIENNA (Reuters) -Authorities in Austria are not planning to arrest Rene Benko in response to an Italian judge's order that the Austrian property tycoon be brought into custody, a spokesman for public prosecutors in Innsbruck said on Wednesday.
The judge ordered the arrest of Benko and eight others as part of an investigation into alleged corruption of politicians in the Trentino Alto-Adige region of northern Italy, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The European arrest warrant describes Benko as the leader of an alleged criminal group suspected of paying local politicians to obtain construction permits, and get preferential treatment on building concessions and changes in the use of land, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Without naming Benko, Trento's public prosecutors said that the group used local politicians to promote its construction activities in the scenic region known for the Dolomite mountains and its popular ski resorts, just to the south of Austria.
Benko's lawyer Norbert Wess said the Italian order would not be executed against his client, which Hansjoerg Mayr of the Innsbruck prosecutor's office confirmed.
"This European arrest warrant will not be carried out," Mayr said. "The legal situation in Austria is that a European arrest warrant in Austria against an Austrian cannot be executed if the proceedings for which the European arrest warrant was issued are also subject to the Austrian criminal justice system."
Wess said Benko believed the charges could be refuted and that "90 percent" of what is under investigation in Italy had no link to him or his property firm Signa.
Italy's Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza finance police carried out more than 100 searches in four Italian regions on Tuesday, the Trento prosecutors said. A total of 77 people are under investigation, they said.
The charges include criminal conspiracy, corruption, bid-rigging, illegal financing of political parties, fraud, disclosure of secrets and false invoices.
(Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich and Emilio Parodi; writing by Dave Graham; editing by John Revill and Mark Heinrich)
