Report: CAR foreign minister says Boris Becker not diplomat

BERLIN – Central African Republic’s foreign minister reportedly says that retired German tennis star Boris Becker doesn’t have diplomatic status in his unpaid role as a sports attache for the country.

Becker claims that his role gives him diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in Britain. He argues that, as CAR’s attache to the European Union on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs, he’s covered by a 1961 convention on diplomatic relations.

But the African country’s foreign minister, Charles Armel Doubane, was quoted Monday as telling German daily Die Welt that “Boris Becker is not an official diplomat of Central African Republic.” He said that he would have had to sign a document giving Becker that status, but was never asked to.

Doubane said his country won’t obstruct justice in any case against Becker.