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Belarusian Paralympic Committee appeals to IPC Tribunal

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MINSK, 1 December (BelTA) – The Belarusian Paralympic Committee has sent an appeal to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Tribunal against the wrongful decision to suspend the membership of Belarus in the IPC, Chairman of the Belarusian Paralympic Committee Oleg Shepel told the media on 1 December, BelTA has learned.

Oleg Shepel stressed that the decision, taken at a recent IPC Extraordinary General Assembly in Berlin, was adopted with violations. He added that Belarus prepared materials to prove that the country had not violated any point of the new Constitution of the International Paralympic Committee, which was adopted only six months ago. These documents were submitted to foreign counterparts and the IPC administration at the General Assembly. “Nevertheless, everything was done to push through a decision to exclude Belarus and Russia from the global Paralympic family. Of course, this is a split in the international Paralympic movement,” said Oleg Shepel. In addition, in Berlin, the IPC once again made changes to its basic law. In particular, the Executive Committee is now allowed to suspend athletes and coaches, as well as entire teams without any explanation.

According to the chairman of the Belarusian Paralympic Committee, the IPC is headquartered in Bonn and in connection with this the Belarusian Paralympic Committee together with the German lawyers has already prepared to file a claim about the violations to the German court. According to the German laws, discrimination on the grounds of nationality, language and political views is not allowed in Germany.

The IPC now includes 184 organizations - national and regional committees, as well as federations for various sports, Oleg Shepel said. During the IPC Extraordinary General Assembly in Berlin, 54 members voted for the exclusion of Belarusians, while 45 voted against and 18 abstained. It should be noted that before the vote certain work had been carried out with many on how to vote “correctly”. In particular, the representatives of Latin America were promised financial support if the “wishes” of the leadership were fulfilled. Moreover, representatives of many Western European countries, as well as the USA and Canada did not hide that they were almost fulfilling the order of their politicians to suspend the Belarusians and Russians. Delegations from many post-Soviet countries, as well as from Asian countries, in particular from Iran, could not come to the capital of Germany - they were not given entry visas. Once again, these decisions are made to please politicians rather than the sporting spirit and principles of the Olympic movement.

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