Boris Becker, who won six Grand Slams in the 1980s and 90s, has claimed diplomatic immunity from ongoing bankruptcy proceedings in the United Kingdom, as per reports in the British media. He has claimed immunity on the ground that he is now an ambassador for the Central African Republic.
On Thursday, lawyers for Becker, lodged a claim in the UK’s High Court asserting immunity after he was appointed a sports attache for the Central African Republic in April, the Press Association said.
Three-time Wimbledon champion Becker, who is also a former world number one, was declared bankrupt by a London court in June 2017 for failing to pay a long-standing debt.
But his position as attache to the European Union on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs is covered by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
This means the consent of UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his counterpart in Bangui is needed before Becker is subjected to any legal proceedings, his lawyers said, the Press Association reported.
“The decision to commence bankruptcy proceedings against me was both unjustified and unjust,” the Press Association quoted Becker as saying.
“A bunch of anonymous and unaccountable bankers and bureaucrats pushed me into a completely unnecessary declaration of bankruptcy, which has inflicted a whole heap of damage on me, both commercially and professionally, and on those close to me. I have now asserted diplomatic immunity as I am in fact bound to do, in order to bring this farce to an end, so that I can start to rebuild my life.”
The German shook up the tennis world at Wimbledon in 1985 when, as an unseeded player, became the youngest-ever male Grand Slam champion at the age of 17, defending the trophy the following year.
He went on to have a glittering career and won more than 25 millions in prize money.
Becker’s tangled private life has also kept him in the news. He has a daughter conceived in a brief but now famous encounter with a Russian model who claimed she met Becker at a London bar and had sex with him in a broom cupboard at a nearby Japanese restaurant.
In January, Becker appealed for help to track down five of his “missing” Grand Slam trophies, which he said he needed to sell off to help pay off his debts.
-With AFP inputs.