AZERBAIJAN MINISTER THREATENS LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Kamaladdin Heydarov, President of the Azerbaijan Boxing Federation and Minister of Emergency Situations, threatened BBC and local press in a TV interview.

He was reacting to a Newsnight program aired by BBC several days ago, which uncovered evidence of secret payments of millions of dollars from Azerbaijan to the international boxing organization AIBA in connection with its World Series of Boxing (WSB) program.

Whistleblowers say that WSB's chief accepted the money in return for a guarantee that Azerbaijani boxers would win two boxing gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

An boxing organizer at AIBA, the organization charged with organizing Olympic boxing, admitted that an Azeri national paid 9 million USD to AIBA. But AIBA vehemently denies any deal to fix medals.

The Chief Operating Officer of the World Series Boxing, Ivan Khodabakhsh, told Newsnight that claims of any deal with Azerbaijan were "an absolute lie". However, documents obtained by Newsnight show communications between Mr. Khodabakhsh, AIBA executive director Ho Kim, and Azerbaijan's Minister for Emergency Situations Kamaladdin Heydarov regarding an investment agreement for a $10m loan.

The Minister of Emergency Situations, Kamaladdin Heydarov, gave an interview to the local TV stations about the allegations of deal to fix medals.

K.Heydarov: Dismissing the libel report aired by BBC about AIBA and Azerbaijan...they will get their reply. I mean that it is not a good thing to disseminate a non-serious report to the world community basing on someone's allegation. Therefore, they should account for it. AIBA and Azerbaijan Boxing Federation have all necessary facts. What they claim is a slander to World Series Boxing, as well as to individuals.

Heydarov also regretted the local press's reaction to the BBC reports, saying, "Local opposition press and media outlets every time join the slander reports against Azerbajian and Azerbaijan's success never makes them happy." He added that it will not continue this way.

Category:

News & Politics

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• AZERBAIJAN
• MINISTER
• THREATENS
• LOCAL
• AND
• INTERNATIONAL
• PRESS