Australia bans two Olympic officials

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the ban was to protect “the safety and security of the Australian people.”

But IOC director general Francois Carrard complained that it breached an agreement signed with the IOC, allowing entry to all members of the “Olympic family”.

Under Sydney’s host city agreement, Olympic accreditation doubles as a visa to Australia.

“We have asked for an explanation as for the reason why the Australian government has decided not to honour its commitment,” Carrard said. “We are waiting the response.”

Rakhimov, a senior official with the International Amateur Boxing Federation and a vice-president of the Asian Olympic Council, has reportedly been investigated by the FBI over links to the Central Asian drugs trade and Russian organised crime.

According to investigative journalist and author Andre Jennings, he has been barred from France for alleged connections with organised crime.

In 1997, researchers at the Paris-based Geopolitical Drugs Watch named Rakhimov in the annual report on narcotics as one of Uzbekistan’s top three mafia bosses, heavily involved in the drugs trade.

Rakhimov, 49, operates in Moscow and London and is influential in the economic and political leadership of Uzbekistan and in other Central Asian countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, according to Jennings.

Immigration officials here insisted that although Sydney agreed to the IOC conditions that all Olympic members must be allowed entry, it said that it reserved the right to stop anyone it believed constituted a threat to National security.

Carrard said US bans on members of the Olympic movement travelling to Atlanta in 1996 were rescinded but Ruddock refused to apologise or back track on the government’s action.

“We are dealing with serious issues of character,” Rudock said. “We are not making capricious decisions. We don’t take decisions lightly.”

He said it was made clear to the IOC that Australia could demand additional documentation before granting entry and denied an agreement had been breached or that the IOC could be offended.

He said he would consider listening to further evidence about the banned officials but it was unlikely the decision would be changed. “You don’t negotiate matters of this nature,” he said.