Former tennis star Boris Becker faces no further punishment if he is deported from British custody to Germany. “You cannot be prosecuted more than once for the same offense or crime,” said lawyer Natalie von Wistinghausen of the German Press Agency.
“Behind this is the legal principle “ne bis in idem”, i.e. the ban on double punishment.” Lawyer Gül Pinar, a member of the Criminal Law Committee of the German Lawyers’ Association (DAV), also emphasized: “He arrives as a free person.”
According to British media reports, Becker’s release and immediate deportation is imminent. “He will be taken from the prison straight to the airport by the police,” Pinar said. Normally, deportation detainees would leave the country on scheduled flights and land in Germany in Frankfurt am Main. It is also possible that Becker will leave the country in which he has been living for around ten years in a private jet. The British newspaper “Daily Mail” suggested this variant. She claims to have learned from a source that Becker is being paid for a private flight to Germany.
Assets in the millions concealed
The three-time Wimbledon winner was sentenced to two and a half years in prison at the end of April. He had concealed assets worth millions from his insolvency administrators. Under British law, Becker actually has to serve at least half of his sentence before he can be paroled. That would be the case at the end of July 2023. However, as the 55-year-old is not a British citizen, he could benefit from a fast-track procedure designed to expedite deportations of foreign detainees in order to ease the pressure on overcrowded British prisons.
After his deportation, Becker will most likely not be allowed to enter Great Britain for a long time, even though his partner lives there. According to the newspaper “Mirror”, the entry ban applies at least as long as his actual sentence would have been granted, i.e. until the end of October 2024. Attorney Pinar said that the period is usually longer and is at least five years.
Does Becker have to adhere to probation conditions?
It is also unclear whether Becker has to comply with certain probation conditions. As a rule, it is at least stipulated that a change of residence must be reported to the authorities, said Pinar. But here Becker could benefit from Brexit. Since Britain left the EU, any probation conditions could no longer be monitored in Germany on the basis of EU law, the Federal Ministry of Justice announced on request. “Other international legal bases do not provide for the isolated enforcement of probation conditions,” it said.
It could possibly be the case that, according to the law on international legal assistance in criminal matters (IRG), the competence of German authorities results from the domicile of the convicted person. Should Becker stay in his birthplace Leimen, for example, where his mother Elvira lives, the Baden-Württemberg judiciary would be responsible. However, no comparable case is known “in which a deportation to Germany was accompanied by the monitoring of conditions,” the ministry said.
