La Paz: A Bolivian judge remanded the president of the Bolivian Football Federation and treasurer of the sport’s South American confederation in custody on Tuesday, as he faces corruption charges.
In a statement to the press, accused Conmebol treasurer Carlos Chavez dismissed the legal case as having “neither head nor tail” and insisted that “absolutely nothing has been proven.”
He was to be held at the famously overcrowded Palmasola correctional facility in Santa Cruz, according to attorney general Ramiro Guerrero.
Judge Roberto Valdivieso also ordered home detention for Bolivian Football Federation executive secretary Alberto Lozada.
Several top Conmebol executives were recently indicted in a US probe into alleged massive corruption at football’s world body Fifa, and Paraguay’s Congress voted to repeal immunity of the group headquartered in the country in June.
Since news of the Fifa corruption scandal broke in May, prosecutors have asked a total of 23 people to submit statements to Bolivian courts.
Former Conmebol president Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay was among the seven people arrested in a May raid on a luxury hotel in Zurich, as were executive committee members Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Jose Maria Marin of Brazil.
Another former Conmebol president, Nicolas Leoz, was arrested in his native Paraguay and is currently under house arrest awaiting a decision on extraditing him to the United States.
