The referee at the centre of Germany's biggest match-fixing soccer scandal in 30 years could walk free.
Prosecutor Hartmut Schneider asked the Federal Court of Justice on Tuesday to overturn the sentences against Robert Hoyzer and others involved, calling the fraud convictions ``remarkably superficial.''
The presiding judge of the appeals court delayed a ruling and said it would be given Dec. 15.
The Berlin state court found Hoyzer guilty of fraud and sentenced him to 29 months in prison last year for his role in rigging games on behalf of Croatian gambler Ante Sapina.
Sapina was also convicted of fraud and sentenced to 35 months in prison for fixing or attempting to fix 23 games, mostly in Germany's lower divisions. Two of his brothers, another referee and a former player were also convicted of fraud and given suspended prison terms.
Schneider argued that match-fixing cannot be legally prosecuted as fraud.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
