Jordan pulls trio from Games

Omar Sam Qaradhi ((FP))

Tue, August 28, 2012 - 12:05 AM

Jordanian Paralympian Omar Sam Qaradhi, who lives in Barbados, has been taken off the Middle Eastern nation’s team for this week’s Paralympic Games in London.

Embarrassed by the allegations of sexual assault levelled against Omar and two other members of the country’s squad, the Jordanian Paralympics Committee withdrew the names of the three men – Omar, a wheelchair-bound powerlifter, Motaz Al Jamaidi, also a powerlifter, and trainer Faisal Hammas – from competition, stating they had since returned to Jordan.

“We have been informed by the Jordanian National Paralympics Committee that they will not be entering the athletes in question into the London 2012 Paralympics Games,” said a spokeswoman for the Paralympics.

The three were detained last week by the police in Northern Ireland where they were training and they subsequently appeared in court. They were released on bail after being accused of sexual assaults and, in one case voyeurism, the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviours. (TB)

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