IOC defends lobbying on behalf of 'Bob' Hasan

IOC defends lobbying on behalf of 'Bob' Hasan

SYDNEY (AP): The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Tuesday defended its right to lobby on behalf of a detained associate of former Indonesian dictator Suharto.

In Jakarta, the Indonesian government sharply criticized the IOC for asking that Mohamad "Bob" Hasan be released so that he could attend IOC meetings and the Sydney Games.

Hasan faces trial next week for allegedly embezzling US$87 million of state money.

The IOC released the text of a letter written by its president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid.

The letter, dated last April 26, notes that Hasan is the IOC member in Indonesia and serves as a high-ranking official in international track and field.

"We are expecting Indonesia to send a strong team to the Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney, Australia, next September," Samaranch wrote.

"Your continued support for the development of sport and Olympism in Indonesia and to the volunteer officials involved in sport would be highly appreciated."

Indonesia's attorney general, Marzuki Darusman, said Tuesday he was "amazed" by Samaranch's intervention.

"The ethics involved are quite odd," he said. "It contravenes the spirit of the Olympics."

Darusman said there was no way Hasan, Suharto's one-time golfing buddy and a prime financial adviser, would be freed from detention before the trial was held.

Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years before being forced from office in a violent student uprising in 1998, is also facing a corruption trial.

He is charged with siphoning about US$570 million from state coffers to bankroll huge business empires run by his children and cronies.

Both Suharto and Hasan have denied any wrongdoing.

Hasan, who made a fortune by cutting timber from Indonesia's rainforests, has been a major contributor to the nation's sports community.

In Sydney, IOC vice president Dick Pound defended the efforts to free Hasan.

"I don't know whether he is in jail or whether he's been asked not to travel or if his passport's been taken away or he's under house arrest," he said.

Pound said the IOC had an obligation to all its members to lobby on their behalf to allow them to attend the Olympics.

"It's entirely appropriate that the IOC try and help any member who may be being detained without having being convicted," he said.

Pound said the IOC was defending Hasan out of "collegial loyalty."

"He is a member," Pound said. "If we can urge his country to let him travel to the games it is our obligation to try. There's nothing nefarious going on."

If a member is convicted of criminal offenses, he would lose his IOC membership under the Olympic Charter, Pound said.

Pound said there have been previous cases of members from Kenya, India and Bulgaria being prevented by their governments from attending IOC meetings.

"In all these cases no charges were laid, there were never any convictions," he said.

The Hasan controversy comes only days after confirmation that Olympic boxing official Gafur Rakhimov of Uzbekistan and basketball administrator Carl Ching of Hong Kong were denied entry by the Australian government.

Both men have been accused of links with organized crime.

Samaranch wrote Australian Prime Minister John Howard seeking an explanation. Without giving specifics, Howard replied the decision was taken for security reasons.