Slovak suspect in HiPP baby food poisoning case released from custody in Austria
An Austrian court has released a Slovak man accused of poisoning HiPP baby food products. The man is banned from leaving Austria and must report regularly to police.
Suspect in HiPP contamination case leaves investigative custody
An Austrian court has released a 39-year-old Slovak from investigative custody who faces charges in connection with the poisoning of HiPP baby food products and the extortion of the company. As reported by the APA news agency on Thursday, the man was released following a decision by the court in Eisenstadt on 13 October. According to Deník.cz, charges against him nonetheless continue to stand.
Police detained the suspect in early May in the federal state of Salzburg, and he has been held in investigative custody in Eisenstadt since that time. The release occurred under lenient conditions — the man was required to surrender his travel passport and is obliged to report to police every two weeks, according to the Kronen Zeitung newspaper. During the forthcoming trial proceedings, he is not permitted to leave Austria.
The suspect, a former HiPP employee in Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria, allegedly added rat poison to baby food jars according to the indictment. He then placed two jars each in supermarkets in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia — apparently with the aim of extorting the company. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, both jars were found. Austrian authorities secured only one jar, and the fate of the second remains unknown. It cannot be ruled out that, given the proximity of borders, it may have reached Hungary.
The jar secured in Austria contained 15 microgrammes of poison. One expert assessment according to APA states that such a quantity would not be life-threatening if consumed, though it could cause health problems.
Rat poison was also found at the suspect's residence. According to the state prosecutor, its concentration and composition are comparable with the substance found in the secured jar, though this alone would not prove the identity of both samples.
The man denies any involvement in the criminal act. He claims he used the seized poison for pest control on a farm in his native Slovakia. He has so far admitted only to having forged income documentation in order to obtain large loans from a bank.
In the Czech Republic, the case was investigated by South Moravian detectives, health inspectors, and the State Agricultural and Food Inspection Service. Czech police characterised the level of danger as low in April. Contaminated jars were found in the Brno branch of Tesco supermarket.
Source: Deník.cz