IOC warns convicted Kuwaiti sheikh against getting involved in Asian Olympic election

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This article was published 07/07/2023 (1171 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Suspended Olympic power broker Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait has been warned by the IOC about getting involved in an election on Saturday to replace him as president of the Asian Games organizer.

The 45-nation Olympic Council of Asia’s presidential election in Bangkok, Thailand, is between two Kuwaiti candidates — the sheikh’s former long-time aide, Husain al-Musallam, and his brother, Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Sabah.

The Kuwaiti Olympic body nominated the candidacy of al-Musallam, who is the president of swimming’s governing body World Aquatics.

Sheikh Ahmad, an International Olympic Committee member since 1992, was warned off Olympic business by its ethics commission nearly two years ago after his conviction for forgery in Geneva in a case related to domestic Kuwaiti politics. He has appealed the conviction. A ruling is not expected before September.

“Such travel to Thailand could be considered as an interference within the OCA activities,” the IOC ethics commission wrote to the sheikh this week in letters seen by The Associated Press, urging him to reconsider going to Bangkok “to avoid any type of interference with the Olympic Movement’s activities.”

The OCA was created by Sheikh Ahmad’s father in 1981 and organizes the multi-sport Asian Games. The next edition opens Sept. 23 in Hangzhou, China, with about 12,000 athletes competing in more than 480 medal events.

The IOC has not terminated the sheikh’s membership from which he was allowed to self-suspend in 2018 upon being indicted by prosecutors in the Swiss city.

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