GENEVA A Swiss court more used to hearing petty fraud cases was regaled on Tuesday with reports of spying devices, offshore accounts and secret trysts in Geneva hotels in the trial of a suspected Russian Mafia chief. Sandwiched between routine cases of burglary and theft at Geneva's criminal court in the heart of the old town, the trial is proceeding amidst unprecedented security.

Sergei Mikhailov, 40, is accused of organised crime, illegal residence and buying property illegally charges he denies. If convicted, he faces up to seven-and-a-half years in jail. Arrested in October 1996 at the airport in this tranquil and secretive haven for offshore wealth, he is suspected of heading Moscow's Solntsevo gang linked to Russian Mobster Vyacheslav Ivankov, sentenced to 115 months in jail in New York last year.

Two Geneva police officers produced evidence ranging from Interpol letters alleging his Mafia links to a leather suitcase containing a sophisticated, Israeli-made listening device. The device, seized at Mikhailov's home, enables the user to listen to secret radio communications of Swiss police and to tap telephones, police inspector Ralph Vaner told the court. (Reuter)