The daughter of jailed IOC Vice President Kim Un-yong has made a personal appeal to the IOC president to lift her father's suspension from the Olympic body.

　　Helen kim wrote to IOC President Jacques Rogge criticizing the "unwarranted and prejudicial" decision, suggesting it was driven by personal rivalry and Olympic politics.

　　Kim, 72, one of the most influential figures in Olympic sports, was arrested in South Korea on January 27 following investigations that he embezzled millions of dollars from taekwondo organizations.

　　Kim, who has not yet been formally charged, also faces accusations he received bribes in return for helping two men become members of the Korean Olympic Committee.

　　The ioc executive board provisionally stripped Kim of all his Olympic duties on January 23 pending investigations by South Korean authorities and the IOC ethics commission.

　　"You, more than any other person outside of Korean authorities, are empowered to reverse the terrible injustice he is experiencing, an injustice partly of your making," Helen Kim said in her letter to Rogge.

　　"I call upon you to act immediately to restore his rights as an elected vice president of the IOC, which would help set this matter right."

　　Helen kim later said she had received no response to the letter. She said she also called Rogge's office, but he declined to take or return her call.

　　Rogge said in a recent interview that the executive board's unanimous decision to suspend Kim was a "precautionary measure" made to "preserve the reputation" of the IOC.

　　He said the move was based on Kim's reported admission of wrongdoing in South Korea.

　　"He has come out publicly and said there is a presumption of innocence," Helen Kim said. "However he has applied the presumption of guilt."

　　Ioc spokeswoman Giselle Davies said: "Our position hasn't changed. The decision is not a sanction. It's a measure which presumes innocence and is provided for in the Olympic charter."

　　Kim, who received a severe warning in 1999 after being implicated in the Salt Lake City bid scandal, finished a distant second to Rogge in the 2001 IOC presidential election.

　　Kim was elected a vice president last summer, defeating Rogge's preferred candidate, Gerhard Heiberg of Norway.

　　"Your bitter rivalry with Dr Kim for the leadership of the IOC appears to most observers of IOC affairs as lingering and very much an influence on your hasty decision" to suspend him, Helen Kim wrote.

　　She said her father "served the best interests of the IOC" by helping avoid a walkout by the South Korean athletes following judging controversies at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

　　"My father had nothing against Dr Rogge - they were competitors in the election but that's about it," Kim's daughter said.

　　"My father really tried to help Dr Rogge when he went against his own people in Salt Lake. This really hurts."

　　At a news conference in Seoul on January 8, where he announced he would resign as a national legislator and world taekwondo chief, Kim apologized and said he "sometimes got careless" and "did things wrong."

　　Rogge cited the comments as a basis for the IOC decision. Kim's daughter said Rogge was making a "gross misinterpretation" and the remarks should be taken in cultural context.