MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Earlier, US Department of State spokesperson Mark Toner said in a briefing that the United States encourages Olympic swimmers to cooperate with Brazilian authorities on a probe into suspicions the athletes feigned a robbery.
"We can confirm that Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the United States by Brazilian authorities," the spokesman said as quoted by The New York Times on Wednesday.
A Brazilian judge ordered US swimmers Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen to stay in Rio three days after they claimed being robbed at gunpoint, as Brazilian law enforcement officials found inconsistencies in the swimmers' stories and wanted to determine if they had filed a false police report.
Lochte said that he and three other Olympic swimmers were robbed at gunpoint by people claiming to be policemen on Sunday.
The New York Times reported citing Lochte’s lawyer on Wednesday that the swimmer had left Brazil before the judge issued the order to seize the passports of the swimmers.
Conger and Bentz were detained at the Rio de Janeiro Galeao International Airport on Wednesday and their passports were confiscated.
