Enlarge image
Boris Becker (in April 2022): Was convicted of bankruptcy offences
Photo: Kirsty O'connor / dpa
Boris Becker is back in Germany after his prison term in Great Britain.
According to SPIEGEL information, the German tennis legend landed in Munich in the afternoon with a chartered private jet from Air Hamburg.
The Cessna Citation XLS machine had previously taken off from Farnborough Airport.
Becker's attorney had previously confirmed reports that Becker had been released from prison.
»Our client Boris Becker was released from custody in England and left for Germany today.
He has thus served his sentence and is not subject to any criminal law restrictions in Germany," Christian-Oliver Moser told the dpa news agency in the afternoon.
Assets in the millions concealed
The three-time Wimbledon winner was convicted in London on April 29 for concealing assets worth millions from his insolvency administrators.
Becker was declared bankrupt in 2017.
He then had to disclose his assets to the insolvency administrators – but in the opinion of the court he left out important parts.
He was most recently in Huntercombe Prison west of the British capital.
Under British law, prisoners cannot actually be paroled until they have served at least half of their sentence.
For Becker, that would be 15 months, i.e. until July 29, 2023. However, the former exceptional athlete benefited from a special dismissal and deportation program.
Any foreign prisoner “who can be released from prison and deported up to twelve months before the earliest release date” is eligible.
This should provide relief for British prisons.
What Becker's future will look like is still unclear.
The vice president of the German Tennis Association (DTB), Dirk Hordoff, had promised Becker a position weeks ago in an interview with "Sport Bild".
»To put it bluntly: Boris can choose his job!«
mgb/bbr/dpa
