Pele, Lula Deny Rio Bribery

(ATR) Football great Pele and the ex-president of Brazil Lula say they knew nothing about vote-buying for the Rio de Janeiro bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Both appeared separately by video in a Rio de Janeiro court.

Pele said he met in 2009 with then IOC member Lamine Diack. The Senegal sports leader allegedly delivered the votes of other African members. But in his testimony, Pele denied making any bribes.

The Santos great player was a defense witness for Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the former president of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee and the Brazilian Olympic Committee.

Nuzman is accused, along with former governor Sergio Cabral and former Rio 2016 director Leonardo Gryner of paying $2 million dollars to Diack and his son Papa Massata Diack to obtain the support of votes from Africa.

Lula, imprisoned for corruption charges, appeared as a witness for Cabral.

Like Pele, the former president rejected any involvement in the alleged Olympic scandal and said he had no knowledge of bribes for votes.

It was the first public appearance of Lula since he was sentenced to prison in April. He faces a 12-year term for petty corruption, money laundering and influence peddling.

Neither Lula nor Pele are being investigated as suspects in the police operation called "Fair Play".

To date 24 witnesses have been presented by the defense.

"So far the testimonies have been very favorable," said Nuzman's lawyer, Joao Francisco Neto.

None of the members of the International Olympic Committee sought by the defense to testify have yet to appear.

Around The Rings was able to confirm that the initial list of about 20 member witnesses and IOC officials was reduced to six.

Dropped from the list are Prince Albert of Monaco and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

The six mentioned now are Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco, honorary members Lassana Palenfo of Ivory Coast and Kipchoge Keino from Kenya. IOC staff bein asked to testify include director general Christophe de Kepper, bid cities director Jacqueline Barrett and ex Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli.

There is no indication when any of those individuals may testify.

Homepage photo: CBF

Reported by Miguel Hernandez.