Michael Schumacher medical records theft suspect found hanged
Baku, August 7 (AZERTAC). A man arrested on suspicion of involvement in the theft and leaking of a medical file on injured ex-Formula One champion Michael Schumacher was found hanged in his cell on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
The man, whose identity was not disclosed, worked as an executive at a Swiss helicopter air rescue company, Rega, which organised the German sportsman’s transport from a French hospital to Switzerland in June, the Zurich prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The man, arrested on Tuesday and interrogated by police, had denied any wrongdoing. He was being detained in a Zurich police holding cell, the statement said.
He was found hanged when officers came to bring him breakfast before a scheduled hearing before a judge.
According to an initial investigation no one else was involved in his hanging, the prosecutor’s office said.
Zurich police told AFP they had spotted no signs the man was mentally unstable or suicidal.
French prosecutors tracked the IP address of the computer used in the theft of the medical records to Zurich-based Rega, the main operator of air ambulances in Switzerland. The company confirmed that it had received a medical file to enable it to provide a medical opinion on the merits of the transfer operation but denied any wrongdoing.
The firm followed in the footsteps of Schumacher’s family and lodged a legal complaint against “persons unknown” in the case.
French police opened a criminal investigation and requested assistance from Switzerland, which had opened its own probe.
Rega chief Ernst Kohler expressed sadness at Wednesday’s news.
The Zurich prosecutor’s office refused to reveal the man’s age, nationality or other identifying details. But spokeswoman Corinne Bouvard told AFP that he had been suspected of acting alone. In a statement the prosecution authority stressed that the man should be presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Schumacher remains in the Lausanne clinic, but little information has emerged about his condition since it was announced he had come out of a six-month coma in June.
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