Rio Olympic committee chief resigns after arrest
8 Oct 2017 3:54 PM GMT
Rio de Janeiro: The chairman of Brazil's Olympic Committee, who helped organise the Rio 2016 Games, submitted his resignation, saying he wanted to concentrate on defending himself against corruption charges.
"To be able to fully exercise my right to defense, which has up until now been violated, I resign with immediate effect my duties as chairman of the Brazilian Olympic Committee," Carlos Nuzman said in a statement released Saturday but dated Friday.
He also resigned as chairman of the Rio 2016 organizing committee, which ran the first Olympics ever held in South America.
The Games were generally lauded as a success at the time. However, the aftermath has produced a flow of corruption scandals alleging the embezzlement of millions of dollars.
Nuzman, 75, was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday as part of a probe into allegations he helped buy votes from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to secure Rio's hosting of the 2016 Games.
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