ROME (AP) - Police in Germany have arrested a truck driver accused within the crash in Italy final yr that killed skilled bicycle owner Davide Rebellin, Italian prosecutors mentioned Saturday.

Wolfgang Rieke is accused of highway murder and leaving the scene of a crash. Vicenza prosecutor Lino Giorgio Bruno mentioned he was arrested Thursday in Muenster on a European arrest warrant. German authorities mentioned he had surrendered.

Rebellin, considered one of biking’s longest-serving professionals, was killed Nov. 30 throughout a coaching run close to the northern Italian city of Montebello Vicentino. At the time, Italian media reported the truck that struck him didn’t cease. But prosecutors, citing roadside video and witness images, mentioned the motive force stopped, obtained out of the cab and approached Rebellin, after which obtained again within the truck and left the scene.

The investigation recognized the truck as belonging to a delivery agency based mostly in Recke, Germany, and Rieke as the motive force. After the crash, the truck continued on to its vacation spot in Verona and returned to Germany on Dec. 3. After that, the pink trailer allegedly concerned within the crash was indifferent from the tractor and changed with a white one with completely different plates, prosecutors mentioned.

After authorities seized the truck, specialists recognized harm in line with the collision and decided the car had been cleaned with a concentrated, extremely acidic detergent, prosecutors mentioned. Inside the cab had been functioning video cameras and mirrors that may have given the motive force the mandatory direct and oblique view of the bicycle owner, the assertion mentioned.

While Rebellin was discovered to have violated highway guidelines requiring him to offer priority to the truck, “such a violation had no causal effect” on the crash given the period of time between Rebellin’s violations and the crash, the assertion mentioned, citing the decide’s arrest warrant.

The suspect surrendered to authorities in Steinfurt, close to Muenster, on Thursday, accompanied by his protection legal professional, senior public prosecutor Elmar Pleus of the Hamm prosecutor normal’s workplace mentioned on Saturday in response to a request by the German information company dpa.

It was unclear if Rieke had a lawyer. There was no fast response to a name and electronic mail Saturday to Muenster police searching for info.

Rebellin had solely retired from skilled biking a month earlier than the crash, ending a 30-year profession together with his remaining group Work Service-Vitalcare-Dynatek. Rebellin’s successes included victories at Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico in addition to successful a stage within the 1996 version of the Giro d’Italia, which he additionally led for six phases.

Rebellin received silver within the highway race on the 2008 Olympic Games, however he was later stripped of his medal and banned for 2 years after a optimistic doping check. He had denied wrongdoing.

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Kirsten Grieshaber contributed from Berlin.

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