Allegations for Azerbaijan’s purchasing 2012 Olympics medals dismissed

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Special Investigation Committee said that claims on BBC's Newsnight on Sept 23 were "groundless and unsupported by credible evidence".

The committee accepted an investment was made by Hamid Hamidov, an Azeri businessman, but said it was purely for "commercial purposes" and "the subject of medals had never come up in any discussions or agreements".

It also exonerated AIBA's World Series of Boxing's chief operating officer, Ivan Khodabakhsh – another Azeri challenged by the BBC – of wrongdoing.

Newsnight claimed to reveal secret payments from an Azerbaijan source to an AIBA subsidiary, World Series Boxing, and aired allegations that WSB’s chief executive claimed the money was conditional on Azeri fighters winning two gold medals at London 2012.

A statement from the committee added: "We have conducted an exhaustive investigation over the past two months and we have concluded that the allegations...were completely without merit", The telegraph reported.