HEERLEN - The world boxing champion Gevorg K. from Heerlen, suspected of human trafficking and extortion, has been released for the second time since his arrest last June. The court in Den Bosch ruled yesterday that K. should not have been detained again several weeks ago.

One of the two co-defendants must also be released by order of the Bossche Court. A third suspect, who was arrested in Belgium earlier this week for being a fugitive, must still await his appeal against his arrest.K.'s lawyer SergeWeening feels, in his own words, "the king. He reacted with incomprehension several weeks ago to a new arrest warrant issued against his client. The 23-year-old Armenian-born boxer was arrested on June 23 with the two co-defendants for holding hostage and extorting a Heerlen resident.

The court in Maastricht initially ruled in September that there were no grounds to detain the men longer. The prosecution appealed against that decision and presented new witnesses to prove that K. was guilty of systematically exploiting women. The court in Maastricht found that sufficient grounds to detain the suspects again anyway. The lawyers appealed. The court ruled yesterday that there were too few new facts to detain the suspects again. The public prosecutor was unable to comment on the court's decision yesterday.