Australian athletes fined for entering Olympic basketball venue with tampered credentials

Nine Australian Olympic athletes were released by police on Saturday after agreeing to pay a fine of 90,000 Brazilian reals, or about $36,135 Canadian, for entering the basketball arena with tampered accreditations.

The head of the Australian Olympic mission, Kitty Chiller, issued an apology to the athletes, who were held at a police station for several hours overnight, saying the problem with their accreditation for the semifinal between Australia and Serbia was not their fault.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has launched an internal investigation into the incident, in which the group of Australians were removed from the basketball game because their accreditation had been tampered with to allow them access.

The organisation is in the process of paying the fines of 10,000 reals per athlete. Police said in a statement they had confiscated their passports pending payment.

"The Australian athletes were definitely not at fault. I am very disappointed our athletes had to go through what they went through last night," Chiller said.

Their detention by police came hours after the departure from Brazil of U.S. swimmer Jimmy Feigen, who agreed to a 35,000-real fine (roughly $14,052 CAD) for falsely testifying that he and three team mates had been robbed at gun point. Police still want to talk to his team mate Ryan Lochte, who is already in the United States.

Officials for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Rio 2016 organising committee were not available for comment on the Australians' case.

It was the latest in a series of incidents involving Australian athletes at the Games. A member of the team was robbed this week in the centre of Rio and, before the start of the Games, the team refused to enter their accommodation in the Olympic Village until bad plumbing and faulty wiring had been fixed.

Fiona de Jong, the chief executive of the AOC, said the athletes were dealt with "entirely fairly" by police on Friday. "It took some time of course and it was late at night but in terms of the process we can't complain about the manner in which it was conducted," she told a news conference.

Reuters