Without appeal. The conviction after a long run of the former Austrian judo champion Peter Seisenbacher for sexual abuse of minors was confirmed this Saturday in Vienna. The Supreme Court rejected the invalidity petition filed by the sixty-something man, a gold medalist at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, according to a spokesperson for the Vienna public prosecutor's office.
The Vienna Court of Appeal must now rule on the validity of the five-year prison sentence handed down at first instance against him four months ago. The former champion had been found guilty of all the charges against him, including that of rape, aggravated by the grip, on two young girls.
He was their coach
One of the victims, then aged 9, testified about sexual relations suffered for three years. The second complainant was 13 years old at the time of the events. A third had brought to the attention of the justice an attempted sexual assault during a summer camp when she was sixteen.
Peter Seisenbacher was their coach between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. He converted in 1988, a month after becoming the first judoka to keep Olympic gold in Seoul. In addition to his two Olympic titles under 86 kg, he also won world gold in 1985 and European gold in 1986. After 2010, he coached the Georgia team and then that of Azerbaijan.
He did not appear at his assize trial in December 2016 and was the subject of an international arrest warrant. He had been extradited in September by Ukraine, where he had applied for asylum in vain and then tried to flee, provided with false documents.
Sport
Austria: Former Olympic champion charged with aggravated sexual abuse
- Austria
- Minor
- Rape
- Justice
- Judo
- Sport