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Ex-Olympian 'smuggled women'
14/01/2005 16:33 - (SA)
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| File photo of former Austrian figure skating Olympic Champion Wolfgang Schwarz waiting for the start of his trial at a Viennese court. (Ronald Zak, AP) |
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Vienna - Wolfgang Schwarz, who won a figure skating gold at the 1968 Olympics, has been detained on suspicion of human trafficking, an official said on Friday.
Schwarz, 56, was detained January 7 in his Vienna apartment on suspicion that he trafficked women from the Lithuania to Austria and Italy for prostitution, the Austria Press Agency reported, citing the prosecutor's office.
Schwarz was convicted on similar charges in 2002.
"Schwarz is suspected of having been involved in international prostitution trafficking involving Lithuanian women," APA quoted Ernst Kloyber, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, as saying. Schwarz's involvement allegedly began in March last year.
Schwarz and three Lithuanian suspects are accused of having sent 15 women to Austrian and Italian brothels, APA reported.
Schwarz denied that accusation but admitted he has acted as a mediator to get two women jobs as go-go dancers, his defence attorney Herbert Eichenseder was quoted as telling the agency.
In the 2002 trial, Schwarz admitted having brought five women from Russia and Lithuania to Austria to work as prostitutes, but insisted he had done it only to help the women. The court found that Schwarz took most of the money the women earned.
He was sentenced to a year and a half in jail, but the sentence was postponed because Schwarz was suffering from the side effects of treatment for skin cancer.
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