Suspended IOC Member Testifies in Paris

(ATR) Famed sprinter and IOC member in Namibia Frank Fredericks testified Thursday in a Paris court that is probing vote-buying allegations by the bids from Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics and Tokyo for the 2020 Games.

Fredericks has come under suspicion for receiving a $299,000 payment to an offshore bank account on October 2, 2009. That’s the same day Fredericks and his IOC colleagues voted for the 2016 Olympic host. Rio was the winner among five cities which were bidding..

Fredericks has admitted receiving the money from Papa Massata Diack, the son of disgraced ex-IAAF president Lamine Diack. The Diacks are both suspected by French authorities of organizing the vote-buying scheme. But Fredericks maintains that the payment was connected to his work developing athletics among African youth, not a bribe for his vote.

"I categorically deny any direct or indirect involvement in any untoward conduct and confirm that I have never breached any law, regulation or rule of ethics in respect of any IOC election process," insisted Fredericks in March when the allegations surfaced.

Fredericks, four times a silver medalist at the Olympics and a former world champion, was elected to the IOC in 2004, re-elected in 2012. The hearing before the financial crimes court coincided with his 50th birthday.

Fredericks self-suspended himself from his IOC membership and also resigned as the chair of the Evaluation Commission for the 2024 Olympics. In July, the IAAF provisionally suspended Fredericks from his seat on the ruling Council while the federation reviews the circumstances of the payments received from Diack.

Both father and son have been banished from any involvement with the IAAF as a result of accusations that while he was IAAF president, Lamine Diack took bribes from Russian athletes to withhold the results of positive drug tests. The investigation by the French into the affairs of the Diacks led to the discovery of the vote-buying scheme. Investigators are exploring whether the scheme also impacted the IOC vote for the 2020 Olympics won by Tokyo.

The inquiry has led to the arrest of Carlos Nuzman, the leader of the Rio bid and organizing committee. Shortly after his arrest in September, Nuzman resigned from Rio 2016 as well as his presidency of the Brazilian Olympic Commiittee. He self-suspended his honorary IOC membership, conferred in 2012 when he retired from the IOC at age 70.

Reported by Ed Hula.