German court expects Siemens verdict by July

The German court trying a key informer in a corruption scandal at Germany's Siemens could hand down its verdict by the end of next month, a Reuters report said.

The Munich-based trial of Reinhard Siekaczek, a former manager at Siemens's telecoms division, began in late May and is due to resume on July 14 after a break of three weeks, the reportsaid.

The report also quoted presiding Judge Peter Noll saying that the 'chances are good' that a verdict could be reached by the end of July.

Siekaczek, a 57-year-old former sales manager at Siemens's telecoms equipment division who is defending himself on 58 charges of breach of trust, says he built a slush-fund network at the request of his superiors.

The company's own and other investigations into a suspected organised bribery system at first centred on its telecoms businesses, most of which have now been divested, before spreading to other group divisions such as power and transport.