Benko leaves prison for electronically monitored house arrest

Signa founder René Benko has left the Innsbruck prison and is now under electronically monitored house arrest, ORF reported. The Innsbruck Regional Court approved an ankle monitor on Wednesday, but the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has appealed the decision.

Benko, 49, left the prison early on Thursday and will live in a rented 60-square-metre apartment near his family in Innsbruck. He will be closely monitored and must not contact, directly or indirectly, specified people connected to the Signa Group or the Ingbe Private Foundation. He has also been ordered to receive probation supervision. His permitted time outside is one hour on weekdays and three hours at weekends, his lawyer said.

Electronic monitoring during pre-trial detention remains rare in Austria. Only one other person among the country’s 1,863 people in pre-trial detention is currently wearing an ankle monitor. It is generally granted only when the sole grounds for detention are the risk of flight, not the risk of further offences, which prosecutors continue to allege in Benko’s case.

Benko’s lawyer, Wess, argued that his client needed to be outside prison to prepare properly for upcoming complex hearings. He also cited Benko’s conduct in custody and the length of his pre-trial detention. The prosecutor’s office reportedly filed a six-page submission opposing the ankle monitor. The Innsbruck Higher Regional Court will decide on its appeal.

Earlier detention review hearings in Benko’s case were held at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court, where defence requests for his release were rejected. Prosecutors are investigating 18 matters connected with the collapse of the Signa property group. Benko denies the allegations and is not a suspect in every investigation; allegations also concern other senior Signa figures.

At the end of September, Benko was sentenced at the Innsbruck Regional Court to 30 months in prison for fraudulent bankruptcy. After serving two-thirds of the sentence through his time in pre-trial detention, he was conditionally released from that sentence. His pre-trial detention resumed immediately afterwards.

Benko is due back at the Innsbruck Regional Court on November 4 and 5. Prosecutors allege that he made a false guarantee to former Strabag chief Hans Peter Haselsteiner or representatives of his family foundation, causing the foundation a loss of about five million euros.