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.