him using an old but still valid international arrest warrant issued by the German authorities in 1994. "It`s an irony because Kováč junior has been trying to get to Germany (to face the charges) for a long time and now he has to wait for official extradition to the country he wanted to get to," Jan Havlát, Kováč`s lawyer told Reuters in Bratislava. Havlát added that a hearing in Germany had been scheduled for mid-February and he was concerned that the arrest might yet again hinder his client`s efforts to get to court. The arrest is the latest in a bizarre train of events which have frustrated Kováč`s efforts to face up to fraud charges, which he denies. In 1995 he was kidnapped near Bratislava and spirited away to Austria where he was dumped outside a police station and arrested on the basis of the warrant. A Vienna court then freed him saying he had been brought to Austria against his will and suggested that the Slovak secret service (SIS) could have been involved. The Slovak authorities denied such allegations. Then, in 1996, Slovak border authorities prevented Kováč from going voluntarily to face the charges and took his passport away on the grounds they were investigating the same fraud case in Slovakia. Kováč finally got his passport back at the end of 1997. The charges concern Kováč`s alleged involvement in a $2.3 million fraud against a Slovak company Technopol. The charge was made by an alleged accomplice who had already been sentenced on the same charge in Germany. Slovak opposition parties have linked the affair, especially the 1995 abduction, to a political feud between President Kováč and Prime Minister Mečiar.