CAS ruling was orchestrated, says Russia's Paralympics chief

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling, rejecting the Russian Paralympians' appeal against suspension from the Rio Games, may have been orchestrated in advance, Russia's Paralympic Committee (RPC) President Vladimir Lukin said on Wednesday.

"An impression was being created that the decision on this issue was being made not here and not now but somewhere else and at a different time," Lukin told Rossiya-24 TV Channel, reports Tass.

"All were very much in a hurry. They were in a hurry to board planes and so on and so forth. Speeches were reduced and they didn't allow making substantiated cross-questions. We would want to ask opponents about many things directly with the participation of a court of law."

"To put it shortly, such a passive polite form of pressure was producing its effect and that is why I believe that there are grounds for an opinion that this was a decision orchestrated before," Russia's Paralympic chief said.

CAS on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by the Russian Paralympic Committee against the decision to ban Russian athletes from next month's Paralympic Games in Rio.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) earlier suspended the RPC and banned Russian athletes from this year's Games following the report of the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) led by Richard McLaren of Canada.

The RPC filed an appeal to the CAS on August 15 against this suspension.

"The CAS panel in charge of this matter found that the IPC did not violate any procedural rule in dealing with the disciplinary process leading to the RPC's suspension and that the decision to ban the RPC was made in accordance with the IPC Rules and was proportionate in the circumstances," the CAS statement said.

The panel noted that "the RPC did not file any evidence contradicting the facts on which the IPC decision was based".

--IANS

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