The Brazilian justice will request that the American swimmer and Olympic champion Ryan Lochte, who is being investigated for a false report of assault in Rio de Janeiro, be interrogated in his own country, after confirming that he has already left Brazil, reported judicial sources on Wednesday.
After the confirmation from the Brazilian Federal Police that Lochte returned to the United States last Monday, the judge responsible for the case will have to send a letter rogatory for the swimmer to be interrogated in his own country and clarify the report he made in Brazil, reported a source from the Prosecutor's Office to Efe.
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The Brazilian judge Keyla Blanc, in charge of the special court for Major Events in Rio de Janeiro, prohibited on Wednesday that Lochte and the American swimmer James Feigen leave the country while she investigates the circumstances of the alleged assault that the athletes claimed to have suffered in the early hours of Sunday in Rio de Janeiro.
The judge argued that the swimmers gave contradictory versions in the reports they made to the Brazilian authorities and that the information they provided does not coincide with what the police have established so far, such as the time they allegedly arrived at the Olympic Village after the assault.
The order for the Federal Police to confiscate the passports of the American swimmers came after the media leaked a video showing the supposedly assaulted athletes entering the Olympic Village.
In the video, the athletes appear with their belongings, including cell phones, wallets, athlete credentials, and despite supposedly having just suffered an assault, they seem very calm and even joke about the registration to enter the Olympic Village.
According to Lochte's account, the swimmer was with his teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and Jimmy Feigen when they were assaulted by men wearing police uniforms at gunpoint in a taxi after leaving a party in the neighborhood of Lagoa in Rio.
Sources close to the investigation told Efe that the swimmers' account has "many inconsistencies" and that they have not been cooperative with the authorities in clarifying them.
Lochte won a gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay and finished fifth in the 200m medley in Rio. Bentz and Conger participated in the 4x200m freestyle relay heats and Feigen in the 4x100m relay.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Organizing Committee of Rio 2016 said they did not know whether the two American swimmers being investigated for false report were still in the Olympic Village and whether they were still in Brazil.
The Brazilian Federal Police informed that the customs records at the international airport in Rio de Janeiro show that Lochte returned to the United States last Monday.
Feigen apparently did not leave Brazil but he was not staying in the Olympic Village and has not been located by the police.
Source: EFE
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