Rio de Janeiro police investigating a ticket-scalping case say they want the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to explain why Ireland’s allocation of Summer Games tickets went up.
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They said the International Olympic Committee president received personal requests for hundreds of high-value tickets, for the Olympics opening ceremony, the 100 metres final and the football final from Mr Hickey.
Charges have been levelled against Mr Hickey and nine others by a public prosecutor over an alleged ticket touting scheme that saw OCI tickets passed to British company THG, which was unauthorised to sell tickets or ticketed hospitality at the Rio Games.
There are said to be 65 e-mail exchanges between the pair dating to 2014, but police investigator Aloysio Falcao said that the authorities have no evidence that Bach knew of the alleged ticket scam.
They had anticipated Mr Bach would be in Rio for Wednesday’s Paralympic Games opening ceremony, but the German was not in attendance.
The plot revolving around the ticket touting scandal deepens tonight, with the revelation that the Olympic Committee of Ireland’s Sports Director Martin Burke has been named as a new suspect in the investigation.
Two other Irishmen, Pat Hickey and Kevin Mallon, are facing charges as a result of the investigation which began as the Games opened in Rio last month.
Patrick Hickey, left, sent Thomas Bach a “wish-list” of events for which he wanted more tickets.
He also delivers a “wishlist” to Bach demanding 980 extra tickets, including 200 tickets for the men’s 100m final and 500 tickets for the men’s football final.
OCI president Patrick Hickey, 71, and THG Sports executive Kevin James Mallon, 36, have already been charged by prosecutors in Brazil.
He was arrested on August 17 in a dawn raid on his Rio hotel room.
In an Independent article headlined ‘How did Pat Hickey become the most hated man in Irish sport?’ Irish sports journalist Paul Kimmage said there was not one single expression of support for Hickey, at least not any that he had seen.
Ricardo Barboza de Souza, the detective leading the investigation said: “The seized mobile phones and tablets, and the analysis of their contents, have brought very important data to the police”.
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“The IOC will not further publicly comment on this matter since it is an ongoing legal procedure against Mr Hickey for whom the presumption of innocence prevails”.
