THE MAN WHO WAS CONVICTED yesterday of coercion and violating Swiss bank secrecy laws has been re-arrested by Swiss authorities.

Former banker Rudolf Elmer avoided the jail term prosecutors had pushed for when the judge sentenced him to a €4,600 fine, suspended for two years.

He was accused of stealing client data after being fired from his job at Swiss bank Julius Baer Bank.

Elmer said he had provided WikiLeaks with confidential information three years ago. Awaiting the verdict yesterday, Elmer told the media he believed he had erred while attempting to expose tax fraud, but was not “a traitor”.

Immediately after those court proceedings had ended, Elmer was arrested again on suspicion of violating banking laws when allegedly providing WikiLeaks with bank client data on Monday, Deutsche Welle reports.

At a press conference on Monday, Elmer claimed to give WikiLeaks two CDs containing off-shore account details for some 2,000 clients, including well-known personalities and politicians. He claimed he was trying to expose tax evasion.

WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange promised to publish the information once it had been verified.