Brazilian police revealed the details at a news conference today.
The sale of tickets to the 2016 Olympic Games was discussed in emails between Pat Hickey and Marcus Evans, head of The Hospitality Group (THG), as early as 2010, according to an investigation by the Brazilian police.
Hickey, who was last week arrested as part of an investigation into ticket touting at the Olympic Games, is currently being held in Bangu prison in Rio de Janeiro.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Brazilian police said they had uncovered email exchanges between Hickey and Evans discussing the sale of tickets to the 2016 Olympics as far back as 2010 and that the most recent exchange between them was on August 3 of this year.
Sinead O’Carroll of TheJournal.ie tweeted the following pictures from Rio de Janeiro earlier this evening.
Emails between Pat Hickey and Marcus Evans showed to press in Rio police station pic.twitter.com/CGrC7g9EpG
— Sinéad O'Carroll (@SineadOCarroll) August 23, 2016
The most recent email exchanges, from August 3, relate to NOC (National Olympic Committee) allocated tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies, with Hickey giving Evans license to “use them all” as he did not require tickets for either ceremony.
Three members of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) – Dermot Henihan, Kevin Kilty and Stephen Martin – had their passports seized by Brazilian police on Sunday as part of the investigation; Henihan was released after he was questioned by police on Tuesday.
Hickey’s case could drag on for a number of weeks as, according to RTÉ, his case has to be distributed to a specific court, where a judge will decide whether or not to accept a case put forward by public prosecutors.
Hickey’s lawyers have refuted the claims against him, and have said that his arrest was provided for by absolutely no material evidence.
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