Former Olympic judo champion Peter Seisenbacher convicted of sexually abusing minors left prison in Austria on Friday after serving two-thirds of his sentence, judicial sources told AFP.
The 60-year-old, gold medalist at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, was released on parole as provided by law, according to a regional court spokeswoman interviewed by AFP.
His release was confirmed to AFP by his lawyer.
In Austria, an incarcerated person can be granted conditional release after having served two thirds of their sentence, unless there are specific reasons to fear that they may commit another crime.
In 2019, an Austrian court sentenced Peter Seisenbacher to five years in prison after finding him guilty of all the charges against him, including that of rape, aggravated by the influence, of two minors.
The conviction was upheld on appeal.
One of the victims, then aged nine, had testified to having had sex for three years.
A second complainant was 13 years old at the time.
A third had brought to the attention of justice an attempted sexual assault during a holiday camp, when she was sixteen years old.
The most successful Austrian in judo, Peter Seisenbacher was their coach between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. He converted in 1988, a month after becoming the first judoka to retain Olympic gold in Seoul.
In addition to his two Olympic titles under 86 kg, he also won world gold in 1985 and European gold in 1986. After 2010, he coached the Georgia team and then that of Azerbaijan.
He had not appeared at his assize trial in December 2016 and had been the subject of an international arrest warrant.
He had been extradited in 2019 by Ukraine where he had applied for asylum in vain and then tried to flee, with false papers.