 13 people with ties in Armenia detained in Belguim tennis probe June 5, 2018 - 19:45 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Belgium has detained 13 people in raids over an investigation into suspected match-fixing in the lower ranks of professional tennis, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday, June 5, according to Reuters. A criminal organization with ties in Belgium and Armenia has been bribing professional tennis players since 2014 to fix matches, letting the criminals to rake in profits by placing bets, the prosecutors said. The fixed matches were usually in lower-ranked, rarely televised tournaments such as the Futures and Challenger circuits, where it was easier to bribe players, prosecutors said. An independent report commissioned by the sport’s major bodies concluded in April that tennis faced “very significant” integrity problems caused by a sharp increase in internet betting. The Interim Report of the Independent Review of Integrity said its two-year investigation had not revealed widespread corruption at the top of the professional game. There was evidence of some issues at these levels, though the review panel’s chairman Adam Lewis said match fixing at the level of a Grand Slam tournament was “unlikely”. The highest-ranked player to be embroiled in a match-fixing case has been Italian Marco Cecchinato, who faced Serbia’s Novak Djokovic on Tuesday in the quarter-final of the French Open, the second of the tennis year’s four blue riband events. Cecchinato’s national federation found him guilty in 2016 of placing a bet on himself the previous year to lose a match during a Moroccan Challenger event. Cecchinato has always denied the claim, and a playing ban against him was overturned by the Italian Olympic Committee because of irregularities regarding how the evidence was gathered. The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), the sport’s anti-corruption authority, was “aware of and has supported Belgian police action taken in relation to alleged tennis match-fixing offences,” it said in a statement on Tuesday, declining to comment further. Belgian investigators have cooperated with counterparts in Germany, France, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Netherlands and the United States. A judge will decide at a later stage whether those detained would be formally arrested, prosecutors added.   Top stories Six total incidents have burned 19 old-growth trees. Friday night 8 trees were torched along the beautiful main entrance. The EU does not intend to conduct military exercises with Armenia, Lead Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano says. Hikmet Hajiyev has said that there is no place for USAID operation in Azerbaijan any longer. A telephone conversation between Putin and Pashinyan before the CSTO summit is not planned, Peskov says.   Partner news |  Latest news Armenia-Azerbaijan: Experts launch work on determining coordinates  Expert groups from the countries started the process of determining the coordinates based on geodetic measurements.Yerevan says did not expect CSTO in peacekeeping role Pashinyan has declared that the CSTO would be expected to come to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border as an ally of ArmeniaHenrikh Mkhitaryan wins Serie A title with Inter Inter Milan midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan admits that the team have long been imagining clinching Serie A against AC Milan.Armenia not going to war over Karabakh, says Pashinyan Armenia is not preparing to fight a war for Nagorno Karabakh, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview. |
