The IOC on Saturday suspended former Olympic power broker Sheikh Ahmad of Kuwait for 15 years after his conviction for forgery was upheld by Switzerland's Court of Criminal Appeal this year.
The sanction for Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahd Al Sabah's “betrayal of the oath of IOC membership and the seriousness of the damage to the reputation of the IOC” was imposed by the Olympic body's executive board on a recommendation from the Ethics Committee. Approved by.
His 15-year ban starts from the date he was previously suspended for a separate issue of unethical conduct in the Olympic Council of Asia elections. It was a three-year sanction imposed on July 27 last year.
The leader, who will turn 61 the day after the Paris Games conclude in August, will be 74 when his latest sentence ends. The Olympic Charter also allows the annual general meeting of IOC members to expel colleagues who betray their oath.
“The IOC Ethics Commission notes that during this period of suspension, Sheikh Ahmad Al Sabah will not meet the ethical standards necessary for re-election at the end of his term,” the published judgment said. This suggests his career with the IOC. It's practically over.
Sheikh Ahmad headed the Olympic Council of Asia, founded by his father, in Kuwait before joining the IOC in 1992. He is a longtime close ally of current IOC President Thomas Bach and campaigned for Bach in the 2013 election.
The Kuwaiti royal family was “self-suspended” as an IOC member after being indicted in Geneva in 2018. He also stepped down as leader of the global group of national Olympic organizations known as ANOC.
In January, Sheikh Ahmad, his former British lawyer, and a close Kuwaiti aide who lives in Geneva had their convictions from September 2021 upheld on charges of orchestrating a sham arbitration case 10 years ago.
An appeals court judge in Geneva changed the chief's prison sentence to a two-year suspended sentence and a three-year suspended sentence.
In 2013, he presented Kuwaiti authorities with video footage that he claimed showed former prime minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohamed al-Sabah and former parliament speaker Jassim al-Kharafi discussing a coup. They could have been sentenced to death for treason.
Lawyers for Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed and the Al Khalafi family have filed a criminal complaint in Geneva in connection with the arbitration case. The arbitration, which was later determined to be a fake, was submitted to the High Court in London as part of proceedings seeking verification of the video.
Sheikh Ahmad also served as a senior FIFA official from 2015 to 2017, but federal prosecutors in Brooklyn withdrew his bid for re-election after he was accused of bribing Asian soccer officials. He denied wrongdoing but was not charged.
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