Gafur Akhmedovich Rachimow

Gafur Akhmedovich Rachimow (born July 22, 1951 , Tashkent , Uzbek SSR , Soviet Union ) is an Uzbek businessman and sports official . He has been President of the World Boxing Federation (AIBA) since November 2018 . In addition to the Uzbek passport, he also has a Russian passport.

Professional background

Rachimow was a boxer and later a boxing coach. In 1995 he became chairman of the AIBA Business Commission . Since then, he has been Vice President of the AIBA for many years and also Vice President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).

In January 2018 Rachimow was elected as the successor to Franco Falcinelli as interim president of the AIBA, who had taken over the office provisionally in December 2017 after the dismissal of the Taiwanese Wu Ching-Kuo due to financial mismanagement.

In November 2018, Rahimov won the presidential election at the AIBA Congress in Moscow . He prevailed against his only opponent, the Kazak Serik Konakbajew , with 86 out of 134 votes . In March 2019, he announced his resignation to allow the association to participate in the Olympic Games .

Allegations of links to organized crime

Rakhimov is considered extremely controversial, he is said to have connections to organized crime , including drug production in Central Asia and the global heroin trade. According to criminologists, he is said to have temporarily controlled a large part of the drug trade in the former Central Asian Soviet republics. Rahimov was refused entry to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney .

In a statement dated February 5, 1998, the French border police described him as a leading member of the Uzbek mafia, which had ties to the gangster authorities Alimzhan Tursunowitsch Tochtachunow (alias: Taiwantschik) and Salim Abduwalijew.

Craig Murray , the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, called Rahimov one of the "most important figures in the global heroin trade" and a "dangerous gangster". Rachimow was also on the Interpol wanted list for many years , from which he has since been removed.

He has been on the Treasury Department's sanctions list since 2012 and his US accounts have been frozen. The Ministry suspects him of being a member of the so-called Brothers' Circle . Rahimov denies this, a specific crime has never been proven to him.

There are also photos showing Rahimov with the Russian mafia bosses Aslan Ussojan and Konstantin Jakowlew , who were active in the drug trade and responsible for numerous murders.

In the run-up to the AIBA presidential election, the IOC threatened to expel the boxing association from the 2020 Olympic Games if Rahimov won the election.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} mmm / dpa / AP: After Aiba presidential election: Boxing at the Olympic Games before the end? In: Spiegel Online . November 3, 2018, accessed April 26, 2020 . 
2. ^ Members of the AIBA Executive Committee , on the AIBA website. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
3. ^ Hans-Joachim Leyenberg: The boxing president and the mafia. In: FAZ.net . February 2, 2018, accessed April 26, 2020 . 
4. ^ Jan / sid: Boxing: Controversial Aiba President Gafur Rachimow announces resignation. In: Spiegel Online . March 22, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020 . 
5. ^ Because of Rachimov: Sanctions or Russian solution? , on handelsblatt.com. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
6. ^ Jens Weinreich: Boxing Association Aiba and candidate Gafur Rachimow: "Dangerous gangster". In: Spiegel Online . November 2, 2018, accessed April 26, 2020 . 
7. ↑ DIRECTION GENERALE DE LA POLICE NATIONALE: DES MOUVEMENTS D'HOMMES D'AFFAIRESEN RELATION AVEC LA MAFIA , dated February 5, 1998, accessed on May 21, 2020.
8. ↑ Boxing - World Federation threatens to be excluded from the Olympics , on sportschau.de, November 11, 2018. Accessed November 11, 2018.