London Olympics organisers are seeking to prevent the families of Colonel Gaddafi and Robert Mugabe from attending next year’s games after it was revealed that hundreds of tickets were made available in Libya and Zimbabwe, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Government figures apparently sought advice on how to prevent the dictators attending after discovering a loophole allowed tickets to be distributed to them and their families.
According to Olympic rules, games organisers must give tickets to any of the IOC’s 205 member states who ask for them, regardless of diplomatic or political issues.
Because the international committee failed to expel the Gaddafi’s regime means his son Muhammad, who heads up the Libyan Olympic Committee, received an allocation of hundreds of tickets.
But officials apparently reassured ministers that, although the two despots, responsible for gross human rights abuses, are eligible to attend under Olympic rules, they are subject to international travel bans.
The news will no doubt anger the millions of Brits who missed out on tickets the first time around. Next week they will find out if they are allowed to have another crack at applying for tickets again.
Only 800,000 Brits were successful in securing tickets the first time.
