Tags:
Journalism of Courage
LAUSANNE, JAN 22: The Salt Lake City bid scandal claimed a second International Olympic Committee (IOC) victim when Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi of Libya resigned as a member.
Attarabulsi, 61, an IOC member since 1977, tendered his resignation personally to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch the Olympic body’s director general Francois Carrard told a news conference today.
Attarabulsi was one of several members who had been asked to attend a hearing tomorrow at IOC headquarters in Lausanne to answer questions on bribery allegations surrounding Salt Lake City’s successful bid to stage the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Pirjo Haggman of Finland, another of the 13 members believed to be under investigation, resigned on Tuesday.
A special IOC committee is concluding its investigation this weekend into allegations IOC members received $600,000 worth of goods and services from the US City over a six-year period. Some are said to have received gifts OF a value far exceeding the $150 IOC limit and others are allegedto have accepted scholarships or jobs for family members.
Samaranch unlikely to go
Olympic heads are almost certain to roll when a probe into alleged bribery is concluded at the weekend but Juan Antonio Samaranch, the most powerful man in the movement, will not be one of them.
With the IOC’s credibility at stake, there have been calls for its president Samaranch to resign. But senior Olympic members say there is no chance that will happen.
The calls for Samaranch’s resignation have come from outside the IOC. The reality is that pressure has to come from within his organisation for the Spaniard to even think of quitting.
Most members, including those who are eager to get Samaranch’s job when he retires in 2001, know his departure now would be calamitous for the organisation. Thus, they have been backing the Spaniard during these difficult days.
