'Hitman' charged in Kobe Bryant case

Kobe Bryant's wife says she believes in his innocence

US officials have charged a Swiss bodybuilder with solicitation of murder for allegedly offering to kill the woman who accused basketball star Kobe Bryant of rape.

Patrick Graber, 31, was arrested in Los Angeles on Thursday after allegedly claiming to be a Russian mafia hitman willing to kill the woman.

He was captured by undercover police who set up a sting in a supermarket car park.

This is the latest twist in the case of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant - who denies assaulting a college student in Colorado in June.

Police said Mr Graber suggested he could kill her in a number of ways.

Mr Graber's lawyer said he was a conman not a hitman

"He said he could make her not come to court, he could make her disappear, he could make her have a drug overdose - he was specific in this manner," said a spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff's office.

Detectives said Mr Graber wanted $3m, and was arrested after accepting a bag full of fake banknotes as a down payment.

'Naive'

Mr Graber's lawyer described his client as "naive and not very swift", and a con man rather than a hitman.

He came to the US two years ago hoping to become an actor, but was working as a trainer in a gym, the lawyer said.

He added that Mr Graber had one prior conviction, for fraud, in Switzerland. If convicted, he faces up to nine years in prison.

Meanwhile Kobe Bryant - who is married and has a daughter - is being tried in small Colorado town of Eagle.

He has admitted adultery but denies committing sexual assault, saying his relations with the 19-year-old student were consensual.