{"id":143395,"date":"2018-06-19T17:03:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T17:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/boris-becker-car-diplomatic-immunity-claim-descends-into-confusion\/"},"modified":"2018-06-19T17:03:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T17:03:53","slug":"boris-becker-car-diplomatic-immunity-claim-descends-into-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/boris-becker-car-diplomatic-immunity-claim-descends-into-confusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Becker &#8216;CAR diplomatic immunity&#8217; claim descends into confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Boris Becker during day nine of the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament at the Caja Magica on May 13, 2018 in Madrid, Spain\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/956B\/production\/_102115283_gettyimages-958355560.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  AFP<figcaption>Image caption                                      Boris Becker says the legal action being taken against him is &quot;unjustified and unjust&quot;                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Confusion surrounds a claim by former tennis champion Boris Becker that he holds diplomatic status on behalf of the Central African Republic (CAR).<\/p>\n<p>He asserted last week in London that his appointment as a diplomat by the CAR gave him protection from legal action in a bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n<p>The CAR embassy in Belgium confirmed it had issued him a diplomatic passport.<\/p>\n<p>However, a top official in the CAR foreign ministry told a French news agency the passport was fake.<\/p>\n<p>Cherubin Moroubama told AFP the serial number on the document matched one of a batch of &quot;new passports that were stolen in 2014&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the passport, dated 19 March 2018, does not bear the signature or the stamp of the foreign minister.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A country with bigger problems than Boris Becker <\/li>\n<li>What is diplomatic protection?<\/li>\n<li>Should diplomats still have immunity?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lawyers for the 50-year-old three-time Wimbledon champion say he was appointed a sport and culture attache to the EU by the CAR in April.<\/p>\n<p>In that month he tweeted a picture of himself shaking hands with CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Becker was declared bankrupt in 2017 over money owed to private bank Arbuthnot Latham and is now being pursued for &quot;further assets&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>In his defence lodged with the High Court in London last week, Mr Becker&#039;s lawyers maintained he could not be made subject to any legal process unless President Touadera specifically lifted his immunity at the request of the British government.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  CAR embassy Brussels<figcaption>Image caption                                      Mr Becker&#039;s photo appeared on the website of the CAR embassy in Brussels                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His legal team said: &quot;This means he cannot be subject to legal process in the courts of any country for so long as he remains a recognised diplomatic agent.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>But on Tuesday, Mr Moroubama was quoted by AFP as saying that &quot;Becker&#039;s job profile does not exist&quot; in the CAR&#039;s records.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the document in question describes Becker&#039;s diplomatic role as &quot;financial charge de mission... nothing to do with sporting questions&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Becker&#039;s lawyers have not yet responded.<\/p>\n<p>The tennis star became the first German to win Wimbledon in 1985, at the age of 17.<\/p>\n<p>He won it again in 1986 and 1989 among the 64 ATP Tour titles he claimed during a 15-year career.<\/p>\n<p>After his retirement as a player he became a commentator with the BBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright AFPImage caption Boris Becker says the legal action being taken against him is &quot;unjustified and unjust&quot; Confusion surrounds a claim by former tennis champion Boris Becker that he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}