German goalie Litz Pfannenstiel. (Photo: Litz
Pfannenstiel's Facebook page)
A former Singapore goalkeeper says that he had been
physically abused while doing time in jail
here.
German goalie Lutz Pfannenstiel, now 38, was sentenced to five
months in jail for match-fixing while playing for Geylang United
Football Club in 2001, having been charged with
corruption alongside then-Sembawang
Rangers defender Mirko
Jurilj the year before.
Pfannenstiel served 101 days of his sentence in Queenstown Remand
Prison, reported The New Paper on
Tuesday.
In the years since his release and departure from Singapore, he
told foreign media in interviews that he was not guilty of the
crimes he was charged for, and also that he was nearly raped by
other inmates and was interrogated like a “hardened criminal” by
officers from the Corrupt Practices
Investigation Bureau (CPIB).
A check by Yahoo! Singapore revealed that at least three
foreign interviews done by Pfannenstiel mentioned his jail
time here, all reporting his insistence of his innocence, with him
saying in one
interview that “everybody who looks at the facts knows
(he) was set up”.
He also told sports web portal Bleacher
Report that he had not been found guilty, and in a
particularly revealing interview with UK football magazine Four
Four Two, he shared more details of his imprisonment.
These included alleging that his nose had been broken at least
twice from physical abuse by prison inmates, and that CPIB officers
slapped him and interrogated him over 48 hours, leaving him naked
in a cold cell.
When contacted, CPIB and the Singapore Prison
Service strongly refuted the allegations Pfannenstiel
made, calling them “baseless and unfounded”.
A CPIB spokesperson said that its officers “had conducted
themselves fairly and professionally” during its investigations
into the case.
The Singapore Prison Service added that throughout Pfannenstiel’s
time served in prison, he had never lodged complaints with the
authorities, despite numerous opportunities to do so.
“Mr Pfannenstiel, like all inmates, was checked daily by our
officers, and any sign of injuries would have been noticed and
referred to our doctors,” its spokesperson said, explaining that
his medical records did not reflect any such injuries, much less a
broken nose.
Speaking to The New Paper last week, Pfannenstiel
reiterated his claim to innocence and explained how the charges a
decade ago may have come about.
He said that a man had approached him at a petrol kiosk and asked
him how Geylang United would fare in their next match.
“I didn’t know he was a bookie, and when anybody asks if we were
going to win, I would say we would. Geylang was a good team. We
normally win,” he said.
He also maintained what he said about his experiences in jail here,
although adding that he has since moved on from it.
“The time I spent in prison was so tough that it completely changed
me,” he said. “I had always enjoyed my life as a football player…
but (while in prison) a lot of things became more important to
me.”
Pfannenstiel went on to play in numerous other teams in New
Zealand, Europe and Canada after leaving Singapore, and is
internationally known as the only footballer in history to have
played more than 400 games on all six inhabited continents — and he
plans to stage a match in the seventh, Antartica, in 2014 — for 28
different teams.
He founded Global United Football
Club in 2008, with which he organises celebrity football
matches to spread awareness about climate change. Under the club,
he and other international players worked with US-based The Sanneh
Foundation to provide assistance to families afflicted
by the Pakistan floods last year.