Nuzman freed on bail pending Rio Games vote-rig trial

RIO DE JANEIRO

Brazilian judges on Thursday conditionally released from jail the former head of the country's Olympic committee who is charged with corruption in an alleged vote-buying scandal to secure the 2016 games.

Federal police arrested Carlos Nuzman, 75, at his home in an upscale Rio neighbourhood on October 5.

He was formally charged Wednesday with corruption for his role in the alleged $2-million scheme to secure votes in Rio's bid for last year's Olympics.

"The preventive detention was replaced with a conditional release," in a unanimous decision on Thursday, a spokesman for the Superior Court of Justice told AFP.

"For the judges, the detention of Nuzman was a measure disproportionate to the charges against him," the court said on its Twitter account.

It did not say when exactly Nuzman would leave the jail but he will remain on conditional release to await a verdict on the charges against him.

Under the terms of his release he is prevented from leaving Rio. He is also forbidden from visiting premises of the Brazil Olympic Committee and the organizing committee for the 2016 Olympics.

According to prosecutors, Lamine Diack, the former head of world athletics, and his son Papa Massata Diack were also accused of participating in an international network of vote-buying worth $2 million.

The indictment said that Nuzman and the former governor of Rio, Sergio Cabral, "directly solicited" from a businessman "the payment of $2 million" to Papa Massata Diack, the son of Senegalese IOC member Lamine Diack, "to secure votes for the election of Rio."

Rio beat bids from Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to host the 2016 Games.

Nuzman resigned as Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) chairman last week following his arrest.

The International Olympic Committee responded by suspending the BOC and stripping Nuzman of his honorary membership, while also removing him from the coordination committee for the 2020 Tokyo Games.