Fencing Coach Seeks Asylum in West Berlin
The coach of the Romanian women’s fencing team applied for political asylum in West Germany during a seven-nation fencing tournament in West Berlin, city police said Sunday.
Stefan Haukler, 45, left the team on Friday and has been staying at the city’s refugee center since Saturday, said a police spokesman.
Haukler was believed to have left a wife and daughter behind in his Soviet-bloc homeland, the police official said.
Virtually any Eastern European refugee arriving in West Germany is granted asylum if it is formally applied for.
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