Russia confirmed on Friday that it will not let a senior FIFA official enter the country because he was blacklisted for his former role as a US federal attorney.
The chairman of the football governing body's ethics commission, Michael Garcia, is on an official blacklist for his involvement in the sentencing of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Garcia served as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York until 2008, and was co-responsible for the charges against Bout, who was sentenced "unfairly" and on the basis of "dubious evidence," the ministry said.
Bout was sentenced by a jury court in Manhattan to 25 years in prison in 2012.
As FIFA ethics chairman, Garcia is supposed to tour the next World Cup host countries. Russia will host in 2018, Qatar in 2022.
A report that should have been published this September has been postponed until next April.
Russia banned 18 US citizens earlier this year, saying that they were responsible for human rights violations. The list is a direct response to a US law that imposed sanctions against Russians accused of rights violations.
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