VIENNA, Austria -- British rock star Joe Cocker was held in pre-trial detention for a second day Thursday on charges of suspected fraud, his American manager said.
'They won't let me in to talk to him,' said Michael Lang. 'It's like a fascist regime. We have no rights.'
The 39-year old star and his European tour organizer Martin Biallas were placed under pre-trial detention Wednesday for suspected fraud after allegedly cashing in on $21,500 in fees and expenses for a concert they never gave.
Lang said Cocker's treatment by Viennese authorities was 'phenomenal.' 'It's like a police state,' he said.
Klaus Dorbert, a representative of Biallas' West German tour management firm, released a statement Thursday afternoon claiming the technical equipment provided at Tuesday's scheduled concert was 'unusable' and allegations of Cocker's drunkenness were 'slander.'
'Cocker had a medical examination because of this slander on the same evening (of the arrest). The verdict: he was not affected either by alcohol or by drug abuse,' the statement said.
'This medical attestation was submitted to the Vienna Police as evidence,' it said.
Concert promoter Johann Hausner insisted Cocker was drunk. 'He was already drunk when I picked him up at the airport,' he told reporters.
Cocker and his 25-year-old manager were arrested Wednesday at 11 a.m. local time in their Vienna hotel and escorted by plainclothes police first to the police station and then to the Central Court Prison.
The court attorney assigned to Cocker refused to comment on the case, but Lang said it was being re-examined by a second judge.
'They are being held in a kind of incommunicado status, and the lawyers' work is being impeded,' the rock management statement said. 'When a representative of (Cocker's) management went this morning to bring (them) fresh clothes, he was refused entry.'
Cocker and some 18 band and crew members had just finished a 30-day tour of West Germany and Switzerland. Vienna was to be the last of 25 performances.
