Sheikh Ahmad steps aside from Olympic duties over forgery allegations
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the ship of anoc has been sailing rather smoothly and now is not the time to change the captain said the representative from guyana1 sheikh ahmad al-fahad al-sabah one of the most influential figures in international sport on wednesday officially stepped down from a powerful olympic body as he fights forgery charges in switzerland1 i am confident i am innocent. i trust the court of justice in switzerland i know i am innocent. i am sure about that and i will follow through on my trust in the court in switzerland he told delegates1 i will decide to step aside of my own will for a while and to come back to you stronger added the kuwaiti powerbroker1 but there was last-minute drama at the gathering in tokyo as several representatives pushed for the sheikh the only candidate for anoc president to be re-elected anyway1 in chaotic scenes delegate after delegate spoke to defend sheikh ahmad arguing that he had become embroiled in a political affair that had nothing to do with sport and that was being played out in the courts1 ahmad had already announced he was temporarily stepping aside from his ioc duties and asked not to be re-elected president of the association of national olympic committees anoc1 after an unscheduled last-minute intervention from the sheikh delegates finally agreed to postpone the election for president while he sorts out his legal issues1 officials admitted this was a unique situation and there was nothing in the organisations constitution to deal with such a case1 a long-time ioc member seen as a close ally of president thomas bach sheikh ahmad is accused of orchestrating a complex forgery scheme linked to his efforts to prove his native countrys former prime minister is guilty of corruption and plotting a coup1 the aim of the alleged forgery according to a swiss charge sheet seen by afp was to legitimise suspicious video recordings sheikh ahmad had presented in kuwait as evidence of corrupt practices by ex-premier sheikh nasser mohammad al-ahmad al-sabah and former parliament chief jassem al-khorafi1 the case against sheikh ahmad a nephew of kuwaits ruler emir sheikh sabah al-ahmad al-sabah is set to go before a court in geneva next year1