Former German tennis player Boris Becker, former world number one, was found guilty of tax fraud on Tuesday evening and confessed that he feared for his life during the eight “painful” months he was imprisoned in the UK.
“Of course I was guilty. I learned a hard lesson. A very painful lesson. I went hungry and even received death threats. In prison we are nobody. We are just a number. I was the A292EV,” said Boris Becker in a long interview to the German television channel Sat.1.
The former tennis player indicated that it was thanks to the friendship he made with other detainees that he lost those who threatened him. “They saved my life,” he said, assuring that he intends to keep in touch with those who protected him. “When you fight together to survive, it unites us,” he said. “We needed each other.”
Boris Becker confessed that the sound of the cell door closing will remain in his memory forever. “When the cell door closes, there’s nothing left. The loneliest moment I’ve ever had in my life,” he said, adding that “the nights were horrific.”
“You could hear the screams of people trying to kill or hurt themselves, and people exchanging bad words. You’re not sleeping,” he said.
The former tennis player described the prison as “extremely dirty and extremely dangerous”. “There were murderers, child molesters, drug dealers, every type of criminal you can think of,” he said.
This was the first interview with the former German tennis player, now 55 years old, since he was released on December 15 in the United Kingdom, where he has resided since 2012, after serving eight months of his two-and-a-half years . years in prison for tax fraud.
“On the other hand, the prison had good things. We have time to think a lot, think about the mistakes I made these years, when I had bad friends and when I didn’t know how to organize my life” , Becker confessed, winner of six Grand Prix competitions Slam, including three at Wimbledon.
Freed and back in Germany, Becker assumed he would rebuild his life outside his home country, “perhaps in Miami or Dubai”.
The former German athlete was sentenced to 30 months in prison in April for illegally feigning or transferring hundreds of thousands of euros and pounds to avoid paying his debts after he was declared bankrupt.
Becker was charged with transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds from a professional account to other accounts, including those of his ex-wives, failing to declare property in Germany and concealing a loan of €825,000 and an interest in a company.
The former world number one, who in 1985 aged 17 became the first undefined tennis player to win the singles title at Wimbledon, went bankrupt in June 2017 and his debts were estimated at 59 million euros.
Becker has a history of trouble with the law, having been sentenced in Germany in 2002 to a two-year suspended prison sentence and a €500,000 fine for failing to pay €1.7 million in taxes.
Source: DN
