- Title: USA/GERMANY: BORIS AND BARBARA BECKERS' DIVORCE CASE HEARD AT MIAMI FAMILY COURT
- Date: 4th January 2001
- Summary: MIAMI, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 4, 2001) (REUTERS(A)) JUDGE AND LAWYER IN COURTROOM FORMER TENNIS STAR BORIS BECKER IN COURT (SOUNDBITE) (German with English translation) BECKER SAYING "I have a wife with two children, I have hired five or six security personnel to secure the entire family around the car." (LAWYERS QUESTION) "Yes of course, even today as we speak there are threats against my family." LAWYER ASKING QUESTION (English) "Why have you asked this court to seal the court file." (SOUNDBITE) (German with English translation) BECKER SAYING "Because I'm afraid for the lives of my children and for my wife."
- Embargoed: 19th January 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MIAMI, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES/ ESSEN, STUTTGART AND MUNICH, GERMANY
- City:
- Country: USA
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA99LWSSFBESGMGYU9MMU3IDF1T
- Story Text: After announcing they were seperating last December, Boris and Barbara Becker have taken their case to a Miami Dade County judge. At stake is the custody of the couple's two children and Becker's tennis fortune.
Attorneys representing the estranged wife of German tennis star Boris Becker say Becker's lawyers "lost the first round" of the couple's divorce hearing in a Florida court.
What initially looked like an amicable split has turned into a trans-atlantic legal battle as the Becker vs Becker case was heard at a Miami family court on Thursday (January 4).
Thursday's hearing in front of Judge Maynard Gross focused only on the question of whether the custody battle for his children should be heard in public. The question of whether the divorce case should be decided in an American court or under German jurisdiction will not be heard until next Monday.
Becker's attorneys say that the tennis star would like the details of the case kept confidential because of kidnapping and death threats made against his two sons.
Thirty-three year old Barbara Becker holds both German and U.S. citizenship and is the daughter of a former U.S. Army medical corps officer. She filed a petition for support and custody of their two sons in a Miami court in mid-December.
Becker, in turn, filed for divorce in Munich.
Tennis star Boris Becker wants the public excluded from the courtroom to protect his two children from death and kidnapping threats. His wife Barabara wants the public admitted.
In his testimony to the court on Thursday, Becker said he had hired extra security personnel because of his fears for his family's safety.
"I'm afraid for the lives of my children and for my wife"
he said.
The Beckers are fighting for custody over their two sons Noah Gabriel, aged six and one-year-old Elias Balthasar, as well as the question of alimony.
Although Boris Becker initially said the children would stay with Barbara, he is now understood to want the children to return to Germany, and has cited the International Hague Convention on children which states that children of international marriages which are in dispute should live in the country in which they feel at home.
Barbara has taken the two children to the couple's Miami home, leading her husband to accuse her of kidnapping them. In turn she has accused him of trying to terrorize and abuse her psychologically.
Becker's argument that the children should be returned to Germany would also limit the amount of money his wife can demand from him in maintenance. German law and their pre-nuptial agreement are not recognised in the United States where she could claim half his 100 million U.S. dollar fortune. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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