Games bid setback for Pyeongchang as court rules against official

Jan 27, 2011, 14:17 GMT

Seoul - Pyeongchang's bid to host the 2018 winter Olympics suffered a setback Thursday when South Korea's supreme court upheld a conviction of a key member of the bid committee.

Lee Kwang Jae, governor of Gangwon province and deputy chairman of the South Korean venue's bid committee, was stripped of his position as governor Thursday as a result of the supreme court ruling.

Lee will now automatically lose his position on the bid committee, a spokesman for the committee said.

Lee had been sentenced by a lower court to a one-year prison term and a fine of 114 million won (102,000 dollars) for having received illegal political funds. The supreme court imposed a six-month suspended sentence.

The ruling comes just six months before the International Olympic Committee votes on the 2018 bids. Pyeongchang are in the running with France's Annecy and Germany's Munich in the vote on July 6.

As governor, Lee played a key role in Pyeongchang's bid, meeting IOC officials on several occasions. His role will now be taken by vice governor Kang Ki Chang.

Pyeongchang bid chairman Cho Yang Ho said the city's third consecutive bid to host the winter Games would continue with undiminished energy.

'As a matter of national priority, the bid campaign is a team effort that is not dependant on one or two individuals, and we are all working together systematically,' the bid committee said in a statement.

'Pyeongchang 2018 will proactively continue our bid activities under the leadership of the bid chairman and with the government's strong backing.'

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