SOFIA, Bulgaria -- The head of Bulgaria's Olympic Committee urged authorities to release the son of an IOC member being held on charges related to the Salt Lake City Olympic scandal.

John Kim, arrested May 18 at Sofia airport and awaiting the result of extradition proceedings to the United States, faces charges of fraud and document forgery allegedly committed between 1995-99 in New York. He is the son of Kim Un-yong, a South Korean IOC member reprimanded by the International Olympic Committee in 2000 for his involvement in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.

At a news conference Tuesday, Bulgaria's Olympic Committee chairman, Ivan Slavkov, urged a Sofia court to show "humane treatment" of Kim and move him to house arrest.

"What greater guarantees that he will not escape than the guarantees of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee and the Korean embassy," Slavkov said.

The court agreed to look into a seventh request by Kim to be moved to house arrest, Slavkov said. An extradition hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.

Kim is accused of lying to FBI investigators and using a fraudulently obtained green card for a "sham" job that a telecommunications executive testified was arranged by Salt Lake's bid leaders.

He was one of three minor players indicted in the tainted bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Kim, who was living in New York, fled to South Korea before a U.S. court charged him in September 1999 and never returned.

Bulgarian police arrested Kim on an Interpol warrant as he arrived from Paris. Slavkov had officially invited him to visit Bulgaria.

He had been scheduled to inspect the rowing channel near the city of Plovdiv. South Korean rowers are considering using the venue as a training base for next year's Athens Olympics.