The infamous ‘Lochtegate’ scandal is a well known one by now. American Ryan Lochte, one of the most decorated Olympic swimmers in history, told news outlets that he and three teammates were robbed at gunpoint in Brazil after the end of the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, news quickly surfaced that the story was fabricated, and that the four swimmers had actually vandalized a gas station area and were thus asked to pay for the damage by security guards.
With the incident happening nearly two years ago, it was supposed to be over with. Lochte served his suspension from USA Swimming, and has since returned to competing. He won his defense in court, as he obtained a habeas corpus, claiming that he did not falsely communicate a crime since he did not report the alleged assault directly to the police.
However, it looks like the case may resurface. On Friday, May 11th, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro asked for the reopening of the case. The habeas corpus has not been tried by the Brazilian court, but it has nevertheless been requested to reopen. The MP has stated that Lochte’s actions brought serious negative repercussions to Brazil abroad, and that expenses were wasted in investigating a crime that didn’t really happen.
If convicted, Lochte could face 1-6 months in prison, or a fine. Read more about the re-opening, as reported in Portuguese, here and here.
Since the incident, Lochte has had a baby, and most notably competed at the U.S. Open Championships at the end of last summer. He’s expected to vie for a spot on the U.S. Pan Pacific and World Championship teams this summer.
You would think that with all the social, economic and political problems that Brazil has, this prosecutor could find something more important to do. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
I lived in Brazil and that country is a mess!
Lochte’s actions on the night in question are irrelevant at this point as he has compensated the government for his wrondoings. I don’t agree with any of what he did but he was assessed a penalty by the Brazilian government and made good. Under international law there is an underlying rationale of fairness at play and Lochte made the government whole by paying his fine, publicly apologizing etc. What is happening here is a form of blowback for the US’s foreign policies abroad as well as resentment by the Brazilian government for their economic situation which has been exacerbated by these same Olympics. Poor economics and high crime work hand in hand. The world does not view the US as… Read more »
You can understand the resentment of Latin American populations towards USA when we know the long and tragic US history of overthrowing democratically elected leftist governments to replace them with far-right dictators who will serve US big corporations interests. Unfortunately like in 1973 in Chile for example. And it has happened all over the world. Iran is in the news right now. Regime change in 1953 where USA an GB are involved. Result: an authoritarian regime.
But I think that the news about Lochte has very little to do with what I’ve mentioned above and very little to do with the current period of world hate towards the illegitimate corrupt far-right US government and the clown at its head. Lochte… Read more »
Nice fanfic, bro (or gal?).
Tell us another good one.
BOBO we should hang out sometime. I feel like we would have a lot to talk about.
Ryan is not perfect. Sadly because he is somewhat of a celebrity he is also a target anytime he falls short in any way. We are all broken. I wish this man well in his career and with his family. Godspeed Ryan.
This on-again, off-again decision to prosecute makes Brazil look like a banana republic. Yes, Lochte and his cohorts were dumb and disrespectful but what useful purpose would criminal proceedings serve? With a clogged-up justice system surely Brazil has higher priorities? By not letting this go the Brazilian state looks even more shambolic than it actually is.
The U.S. government is handling the extradition warrant in this case now. If convicted, Lochte will spend 6 months re-taping posters in the affluent areas of Rio while speaking publicly at clubs about drinking, during clubbing hours. Brazilian authorities are tasking Lochte to get Brazilians to stop drinking. Trump and the Korea’s have postponed their talks to move forward with this Lochte case.
Good thing we have double jeopardy laws here in the US. Maybe Brazil should too. No way will we extradite the Lochtenator for the sake of a Brazilian political ploy.
Zzzzzzzzzzz. They must be bored in Rio. Or doing the Trump with some bird dog deflection to take the attention away from their own massive crime and corruption problem.
“LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!”
Bring him to justice. Smoke him out of his hole…..and extradite him.