On Wednesday, after Hickey’s arrest, the OCI stopped repeating that sentiment.
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Police said in a statement that Hickey, the 71-year-old head of the European Olympic Committees as well as the Irish national committee, was detained at a luxury Rio hotel.
He was taken to hospital after his arrest as a precaution, where he will probably spend the night, police said. His condition is stable. He is stable at the moment and it will be monitored over the next 24 hours so there will be nothing happening here over the next 24 hours.
Mr Hickey, who is from Phibsboro, and his wife Sylviane have four children.
Until Wednesday morning, Hickey was the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) and collecting his $900-a-day games per diem as an IOC executive board member. Mr.de Oliveira said that Mr. Hickey is suspected of supplying Olympics tickets to scalpers. He said police called an ambulance to the hotel to treat the former judoka, now Honorary Life President of the Irish Judo Association.
“Mr Hickey will of course continue to co-operate and assist with all ongoing inquiries”.
He sits on the International Olympic Council (IOC) executive board.
“What I can tell you is that it involves 1,000 tickets of the six million tickets (for the games)”, he said. “Let’s wait to see what to see what charges are even made yet”.
He was escorted off the premises wearing his dressing gown to face questions about his alleged role in a scheme to sell Olympic tickets for higher than their face value.
Kevin James Mallon, a director of THG Sports, was arrested in Rio on August 5 in possession of nearly 1,000 premier tickets for Games events.
Shane Ross said the terms of reference for an independent investigation will be clearer by this evening.
Mr Kelly said this refusal was “unfortunate”.
Mr. Mallon remains jailed at Rio’s Bangu prison complex and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Pro 10 Management also denies any wrongdoing, saying in a statement released on 12 August that it had always acted properly and fully in line with the guidelines.
Almost 1,000 tickets from a supply belonging to the OCI were seized by Brazilian police last week.
“A Commission of Investigation should be established speedily; investigate all relevant facts and report its conclusions in the shortest possible time”. The company was selling tickets at inflated prices.
The allegations centered on more than 800 tickets belonging to the Irish committee.
Mr Ross said he had not yet spoken to the Taoiseach about the controversy, but he had discussed the controversy with senior officials.
Some of the tickets had the Olympic Council of Ireland name on them.
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He also suggested that a refund of €520,000 given to the OCI is a possibility under existing legislation. “The public deserves answers as to how the OCI operates and how tickets allocated to Ireland were handled”.
