The government of Kuwait filed [KUNA press release] a lawsuit in Swiss court on Thursday against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) [official website] seeking $1 billion in damages for its suspension of the Kuwaiti Olympic Committee (KOC). The IOC has said that it suspended [press release] the KOC last October “to protect the Olympic Movement in Kuwait from undue government interference.” The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world football governing body, issued [BBC report] a similar suspension against Kuwait the same month. The issue stems from the Kuwaiti government’s ability to dissolve sports clubs, federations and the KOC. Information Minister Sheikh Salman al-Humoud Al-Sabah said [Al Jazeera report] that his government has sent a UN-sponsored delegation to Geneva to “explain to the sports body that the Kuwaiti government by no means intervenes in sports activities.” The Kuwaiti government filed [The Hindu report] a similar suit in a domestic court against 15 Kuwaiti sports officials that allegedly sought the suspension in January. Sixteen other international sporting federations have also blacklisted Kuwait.

Kuwait has been suspended [Reuters report] from the Olympics twice in the last five years. Kuwait was suspended from the Olympics in 2015 and if the ban remains in place for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Kuwaiti athletes will be able to compete, but under the Olympic rather than the Kuwaiti flag. The IOC insisted [Reuters report] that the government of Kuwait change Kuwaiti sports law to lift the ban. The Kuwaiti government has maintained that it cannot change its laws without its Parliament as a democratic country with due process.