Overview
- A single judge at the Landesgericht Innsbruck approved Benko’s request on Wednesday to leave pretrial custody and serve the remainder of his detention at a designated residence under an electronic ankle monitor.
- The court said Benko had already served two‑thirds of his 30‑month sentence for fraudulent harm to creditors and found that he no longer posed a flight risk.
- Austria’s WKStA formally opposed the conversion to house arrest in a written submission arguing risks to the proceedings, but the court ordered strict conditions including a set residence, a defined movement radius and rapid fitting of the device.
- Benko remains subject to multiple ongoing investigations in the wider Signa collapse and must return to Innsbruck court on November 4–5 for a separate trial on heavy fraud and related charges.
- The change to electronic monitoring does not close outstanding legal exposure because the Signa insolvency produced billion‑euro creditor claims and may bring further indictments in other investigation strands.