Ireland’s Hickey vows to fight ticket-touting charges

LONDON: Ireland’s veteran Olympics chief insisted on Monday he was “completely innocent” of all charges related to an alleged ticket scam at the Rio Olympics.

Pat Hickey, the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, was arrested in his hotel room on August 17 and is the highest-profile suspect in an alleged attempt to illegally sell tickets to last month’s Rio Games for thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors have estimated the profits from the black market sales at $3 million.

Hickey, 71, spent time in Rio’s Bangu maximum security prison before being released on health grounds.

However, his passport has been retained and he remains in Brazil.

In a statement issued via a Dublin-based PR firm, Hickey proclaimed his innocence by saying: “I have just received formal notification from the Brazilian authorities of the charges laid against me.

“For clarity, I am not under house arrest as, like with so many things with this case, has been misreported by the media.

“I intend to face all the charges and to fight each and every one of them. I am completely innocent of all such charges and I will also vigorously defend my good name and character that I have spent my lifetime building through voluntary service for numerous sporting bodies.”

Hickey added: “I believe in the Brazilian judicial system and I am confident that I will be discharged of all accusations.

“This has been a life-changing experience for me, my wife, my four children and my five grandchildren and my priority is to recover my health and see my family as soon as possible.

“I have been very heartened and humbled by the outpouring of support, letters, texts and emails from the thousands of people in Ireland and from the international sporting world.

“I will be making no further comment until the case has been concluded.”

Hickey’s lawyer Anne Marie James said last month that he had a “serious heart condition”.

Meanwhile, a separate government inquiry in Ireland is probing how Hickey and the OCI handled tickets allocated by the International Olympic Committee for the Rio Games, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2012 London Games.

Hickey has stepped aside temporarily as president of both the OCI and the European Olympic Committees, as well as the decision-making executive board of the IOC.

Questions over the OCI’s ticket allocation came to light with the arrest on August 5 of Kevin Mallon, an Irish director of British hospitality firm THG.

Police said they seized hundreds of tickets from Mallon, some of which had the OCI name on them.

Mallon and Hickey are among 10 defendants facing charges from Brazilian authorities regarding the alleged ticket scam.