Enlarge image
Boris Becker (in April 2022)
Photo: Alberto Pezzali / dpa
After more than half a year in British custody, former tennis star Boris Becker is free again.
The German has been released from prison and will be deported from Britain, the British news agency PA reported.
The "Bild" newspaper also reports on the release.
It is expected that Becker will be flown to Germany immediately after his release.
He does not have to serve the remainder of his two and a half year prison sentence.
However, the dpa news agency reports that the 55-year-old will probably not be allowed to return to his adopted country of Great Britain until his actual sentence has expired.
Becker, who comes from Leimen in Baden-Württemberg, has lived in London for years, but does not have British citizenship.
Assets in the millions concealed
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.
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.
bbr/dpa/AFP