Olympic leaders to learn results of bribery probe Sunday

IOC members prepare to meet

6 IOC members defend themselves before investigative panel

January 23, 1999
Web posted at: 9:08 p.m. EST (0208 GMT)

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (CNN) -- The International Olympic Committee's top brass will meet Sunday to hear the results of an investigation into bribery allegations that have ensnared two Olympic host cities and 13 IOC members.

On Saturday, a six-person investigative commission met behind closed doors at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, hearing six members defend themselves against charges that they accepted gifts and cash from the bid group from Salt Lake City, Utah, host of the 2002 Winter Games.

The names of the members who appeared were not disclosed. The commission will report its findings Sunday to the IOC executive board, which will then propose reforms and possible expulsions to be considered at a special session of the full IOC in mid-March.

Gosper

Australian IOC member: Sydney payments not sinister

The crisis has spread to Sydney, Australia, host of the 2000 Summer Games. Officials there admitted Friday they paid $70,000 to two African IOC delegates the night before Sydney beat Beijing by two votes.

Australian IOC member Kevin Gosper said the executive board will discuss the payments from the Sydney bid group when it meets Sunday to hear the results of the Salt Lake investigation. A full-scale investigation of Sydney's bid could be ordered, he said.

However, Gosper said he saw nothing "sinister" in what was done by the Sydney bid committee. He said the money went to sports programs in Africa linked to the Australian Institute of Sport.

"With the facts I have, I have no reason to believe that was bribery," he said.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, a member of the group that snared the 1996 Summer Olympics for Atlanta, is also defending payments by bid cities to Third World sports programs.

"I don't like rich people sitting in judgment on poor people who've been put out of their homes because of war, who are trying to scratch an existence for children and youth and sport," Young said. "And we sit up self-righteously and say that they're doing something wrong? That offends me."

Istanbul bidders report bribery attempts

Also Saturday, an official with Istanbul's two failed bids for the Summer Games in 2000 and 2004 said his committee was approached by agents offering votes in return for kickbacks and favors.

Yalcin Aksoy said the Turkish committee turned down the offers.

"We are not saying that all IOC members are corrupt, but out of the 100-odd members, it is natural to have a few rotten apples," Aksoy said.

"I will never, never resign"

Implicated IOC member denies charges

Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, one of the IOC members implicated in the Salt Lake scandal, Jean-Claude Ganga of Congo, denied allegations that he accepted $70,000 in cash and free medical care from Salt Lake Olympic boosters, as well as help with a land deal in Utah.

Ganga said the accusations are part of a struggle for control of the IOC among internal factions.

"They want to kick out ... all those influential people who they know ... are against them," he said, noting that several members of the investigative commission aspire to the IOC presidency.

Ganga said he would "never, never resign because I don't think I'm guilty."

Two IOC members, from Libya and Finland, have already resigned, and IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch has said as many as seven others face the possibility of expulsion.

It would take a two-thirds vote of the IOC membership to expel a member.

Lausanne meeting under tight security

Saturday's meeting of the investigative commission took place under tight security. Barricades were set up outside the IOC headquarters on the shores of Lake Geneva, and police and guards kept a close watch on the scores of journalists gathered in front.

IOC officials avoided the media crush by driving into the underground parking area and using a private entrance.

Correspondents Tom Mintier, Aram Roston andReuters contributed to this report.