Uruguay won’t press charges in theft; police say member of delegation may have been involved

Uruguay won’t press charges in theft

JOHANNESBURG — Uruguayan soccer officials have declined to pursue a theft case after allegations emerged that one of their own may have been responsible.

South Africa police spokesman Leon Engelbrecht said after receiving a report that about $12,000 was missing from two of the delegation’s Cape Town hotel rooms several hours before Uruguay played France on Friday, authorities reviewed hotel surveillance camera footage.

“There’s a big possibility that a member of the Uruguayan delegation was involved,” Engelbrecht said Sunday.

He said when delegation members saw the footage, they decided not to open a case.

Sebastian Bauza, president of the Uruguayan soccer association, denied a delegation member was involved, saying that pressing charges would take too much time and distract from the World Cup.

Engelbrecht said police cannot complete their investigation if the Uruguayans don’t pursue the case.

“Now we will never actually know” what happened, Engelbrecht said, adding it was the second such case related to the World Cup. Three Greek players had money stolen from their hotel rooms at a beach resort near Durban on Tuesday, and the Greek team told police it did not want to open a case.

South Africa’s high crime rate has been a concern since it was awarded the World Cup bid, and officials have stressed they are doing all they can to keep World Cup visitors safe.

On Saturday, General Bheki Cele, South Africa’s top police officer, praised his officers and prosecutors for acting quickly after three journalists — two from Portugal, one from Spain — were robbed of money, camera equipment, laptop computers and mobile phones June 9 in a town northwest of Johannesburg. One of the journalists was robbed at gunpoint.

Within days, three suspects were arrested, tried, and sentenced — two to 15 years each, one to four years.