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Warrant issued for Olympic champion over alleged child abuse

Austrian prosecutors said on Monday that they have issued an arrest warrant for former Olympic judo champion Peter Seisenbacher after a no-show at his trial for alleged child sex abuse.

Warrant issued for Olympic champion over alleged child abuse
Peter Seisenbacher. Photo: Manfred Werner/Wikimedia

“The accused is subject to a worldwide warrant,” Vienna public prosecutors said in a statement. It was issued immediately after the scheduled December 19th hearing but not announced until now.

The whereabouts of Seisenbacher, 56, who won Olympic middleweight gold in Los Angeles in 1984 and again in Seoul four years later, were unknown. His lawyer said he had no information.

Seisenbacher was charged in October with sexually abusing two young girls he had coached, one of them for a three-year period from 1998 to 2001, starting when she was 11 years old.

Seisenbacher remains Austria's most successful athlete in the summer Olympics. Since retiring a month after Seoul he coached in Austria, Georgia and most recently in Azerbaijan.

The Austria Press Agency reported on Monday that Seisenbacher may have left Azerbaijan at the end of December.