(ATR) Forty witnesses are in the process of being called to testify in the corruption case of suspended honorary IOC member Carlos Nuzman.
Nuzman’s lawyer João Francisco Neto confirmed to Around the Rings that testimony began today in Rio de Janeiro. Neto said he plans to call 40 witnesses in defense of Nuzman in the coming days. Some of these witnesses are in Brazil and others are IOC members, who will have to testify by Skype.
The dates for IOC member testimonies have not been decided, Neto said. O Globo reported that IOC member Prince Albert of Monaco and honorary IOC member King Wilhelm Alexander of the Netherlands are expected to testify. Attempts to reach offices of each member were not successful.
"The IOC has cooperated with the Brazilian Authorities since the very beginning, as it is in our highest interest to get this situation clarified," an IOC spokesperson said to ATR about the upcoming testimonies.
It is unclear if any other IOC members will be testifying in defense of Nuzman.
"The charge against Nuzman is very weak," Neto said to ATR about his client. "I've never seen anything like it."
Nuzman has been charged with corruption in soliciting bribes in exchange for votes for the 2016 Olympic bid race ahead of the 2009 IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark. Nuzman was arrested as part of a police operation "Unfair Play," a subsidiary of the ongoing Lava Jato corruption scandal.
According to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, Carlos Emanuel Miranda, former adviser of the then governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, admits that four votes were illegally bought in the IOC in exchange for the election of the Brazilian city as the organizer of the Olympic Games 2016.
Neto believes that Miranda’s admission "is not worth anything," as it was used to get him released from prison. Cabral is currently serving a prison sentence for soliciting bribes for state contracts during his term as governor.
Around 10 persons are expected to testify today, according to Neto, including former members of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, as well as federal, state, and municipal government officials. Soccer superstar Pele will testify later this month. Also, former Brazilian Ice Sport Confederation president Eric Maleson will testify today.
Maleson previously had sent letters to IOC Presidents Jacques Rogge and Thomas Bach about the necessity for the Brazilian Olympic Committee to "clean house". He told ATR he would be answering questions from the judge about his past roles in the Brazilian Olympic Committee and what he knows about "the vote buying issue which is already public anyway". He has already spoken with the Brazilian and French authorities about his knowledge which "confirms what other people have said before".
"We have to decide what kind of society we want to live in, the rule of law or completely lawless," Maleson said to ATR. "It is an opportunity for us to clean house and take away individuals who bring a bad name to the IOC, Olympic movement, and Brazil…and hopefully that experience will change the IOC for better.
"With Mr. Nuzman, they found a lot of wrongdoing, the investigators, but he has a right to defense like everyone else. It is up to him to prove his innocence. There is no doubt there is wrongdoing on the voting part of it, but the most important thing is to bring the credibility back to the Brazilian Olympic Committee."
Written by Aaron Bauer and Miguel Hernandez
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