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Take five German goalkeeper sentenced to prison in Singapore
SINGAPORE (AP) -- A German soccer player was sentenced Saturday to five months in a Singapore prison after being found guilty of agreeing to accept bribes from a bookmaker in a match-fixing trial. Before going into the courtroom, Lutz Pfannenstiel, 27, said he was expecting the worst. The goalkeeper from Munich cut off his 13-year-old, trademark blonde ponytail to avoid, he said, the mandatory haircut he would get behind bars. Pfannenstiel was found guilty on Thursday of agreeing to let bookmaker Sivakumar Madasamy bet 18,000 Singapore dollars (US$10,415) on the player's behalf in exchange for influencing the outcomes of three of his own matches in Singapore's local S-League. The player faced a maximum fine of 100,000 Singapore dollars (US$57,863) and a jail term of up to five years. Despite his conviction for "agreeing" to accept bribes, the court determined that Pfannenstiel never actually received money because none of the three games went according to the match fixers' plan. Pfannenstiel's friend and roommate, Australian Mirko Jurilj, was sentenced to five months in prison last month on similar charges. Pfannenstiel cried and hugged his Singaporean girlfriend before he was handcuffed and taken away. The young woman cried throughout the sentencing. Judge Hoo Sheau Ping said Pfannenstiel and Jurilj, who played for another team, "masterminded schemes" to fix games. Madasamy, 28, testified earlier in the trial that he had offered to provide money for the German to bet on S-League soccer matches. Pfannenstiel said Saturday that the only good thing about going to prison was that he'd get to see Jurilj again. His girlfriend, who asked not to be identified because her family was unaware of the case, said the player attended church for two hours on Friday. Pfannenstiel said he thought he would be acquitted because, unlike Jurilj, he never signed a confession. The Australian player claimed he was kept awake for 48 hours and coerced by officials into signing a confession while in detention. A judge rejected that claim.
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