ROME (AP) The extradition hearings for an alleged Russian mobster accused on U.S. charges of fixing two skating events at the Salt Lake City Olympics will not be moved from Venice to Tuscany.

The lawyer for Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov requested the move, saying that his client had been picked up by police in the Tuscan seaside resort of Forte dei Marmi, and should be processed there.

Prosecutors noted that the suspect was formally arrested in Venice and they argued that the attempted move was a stalling tactic.

"The Venice court decided yesterday," Tokhtakhounov's lawyer, Luca Saldarelli, said by phone from his home in Tuscany on Saturday. "But I'm still awaiting word from a high court in Rome regarding a request I made challenging the initial arrest. They should decide on that next month."

The legal challenge is based on Saldarelli's argument that authorities illegally transported Tokhtakhounov from his Forte dei Marmi home to Venice before officially arresting him.

Court officials and prosecutors were unavailable for comment Saturday.

U.S. prosecutors say Tokhtakhounov persuaded a French judge to vote for the Russian pairs team at the Winter Olympics, and a Russian to vote in turn for the French ice-dancing team.

Italian police have released limited - and sometimes unclear - transcripts from wiretapped conversations between Tokhtakhounov and various callers, including alleged discussions of a fixing plot.

A scandal broke out after Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won Olympic gold by a slim margin in pairs figure skating on Feb. 11, defeating Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. A week after the pairs competition, the ice-dancing team of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won France's first gold in figure skating since 1932.

A day after the Russians won, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said she'd been pressured to vote for them. She insists she had nothing to do with any fixing scheme.

The judging flap resulted in a duplicate set of gold medals being awarded to the Canadian pairs team.

Italian police say they came across Tokhtakhounov during a wide Russian mafia investigation. His representatives say he was merely a successful businessman who enjoyed spending time with celebrities and athletes.

Russian sports officials have denied any wrongdoing, and denounced what they called "groundless attacks" on their athletes. French skater Anissina, whose voice Italian police say appears on some of the wiretaps, denies all involvement in corruption and insists it is not her voice on the tapes.

Meanwhile, French newspaper Le Figaro reported Friday that the French Skating Federation chief Didier Gailhaguet believes the FBI may have orchestrated the scandal to have grounds to extradite the reputed mobster.

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