Top wrestlers to be stripped of citizenship and deported

Court finds that Kardanov and Xanthopoulos produced fake papers

Dream gone sour. Wrestlers Amiran Kardanov and Aftadil Xanthopoulos face expulsion from Greece.

SPYRIDOULA SPANEA

Two of the Greek wrestling team's leading athletes, both naturalized Greeks and one of them an Olympic medal winner, face the prospect of deportation after a latest round of findings indicated that both acquired citizenship after producing forged documents. A court is expected to decided today whether to retract their Greek citizenship status.

The two, Amiran Kardanov, a bronze medal winner in freestyle wrestling's 54-kilogram category at the Sydney Olympics, and Aftadil Xanthopoulos, who ended fifth in the 97-kilogram category, from Georgia, acquired Greek citizenship several years ago, claiming Greek descent. Both are currently preparing for the next World Championships to be held this September in Tehran.

In recent years, both have had to fend off suspicions over the legality of their naturalization procedures. An official from the sport's federation, Giorgos Pachtas, has previously filed suits against both Kardanov and Xanthopoulos. It is believed that the charges brought against the athletes were the result of internal wrangling with other federation members. Last year, five-month prison terms were imposed on both, but the athletes appealed.

Wrestling federation authorities yesterday discussed the issue with various leading sports officials, including Sports Minister Yiannis Kourakis, and the general secretary of sports, Nikos Exarchos, hoping that their efforts would stop the deportation procedures against Kardanov and Xanthopoulos. The federation also contacted the Ministry of Defense, since both athletes were commissioned officers, a common reward for high-achieving Olympians.

Yesterday, both Kardanov and Xanthopoulos were unavailable for comment at the team's training facility at Marathon, northeast of Athens. Kardanov did speak to relatives: «I cried when I won that gold medal and saw the Greek flag being raised. Now they are telling me they will deport me, as if I were a criminal,» he told them. Xanthopoulos is in a state of shock and refuses to speak about it.

Both are waiting for a clerk to give them the papers informing them of their expulsion today.

Reacting to the news, the wrestling federation's general secretary, Giorgos Tzias, protested sardonically. «After nine years they've discovered that the Olympic champions and hopefuls for 2004 are not Greeks,» he protested. «These things only happen in Greece.»

Other wrestling federation officials were saying that, if the two were deported, there were bound to be investigations into other athletes born abroad and given Greek citizenship.