Rio de Janeiro (AFP)

The Olympic facilities for the Rio 2016 Olympics were finally reopened to the public, thanks to a court decision that suspended the ban ordered on January 16 due to the lack of security certificates.

"The Olympic Park of Barra da Tijuca and that of Deodoro were reopened on Tuesday," the Rio city hall confirmed late Wednesday to AFP.

On the site of Deodoro, a popular district 40 kilometers north of Copacabana, the Brazilian canoe slalom team resumed training and "the large popular swimming pool will be open to the public on Sunday," said the municipality.

On January 16, a trial judge had responded favorably to a request from the Rio Federal Prosecutor's Office to ban the holding of events in the Olympic facilities until the town hall presented the security certificates guaranteeing their proper functioning.

Prosecutor Leandro Mitidieri pointed in particular to the fact that the installations never obtained the proper licenses which should have been issued at the end of the site.

"There has only been a succession of provisional licenses. This situation has not lasted for more than three years," the prosecutor said on January 18 at a press conference.

The judge had decided to close the installations "to preserve the security of the population", because of the "shows and concerts" which are regularly organized there.

In particular, the Rio Olympic Park hosted the Rock in Rio mega festival at the end of September, which brought together more than 700,000 people in seven days of concerts.

But the municipality presented an appeal and the TRF2 appeal court authorized Tuesday the reopening of the Olympic sites provisionally, the time to examine the file in detail before making a final decision.

The TRF2 considered in particular that the closure of the sites affected "the activities of people depending on their functioning, including the army, which regularly uses the Deodoro site".

The infrastructure of the 2016 Games, the first ever held in South America, had been sharply criticized for its staggering cost, around 12.5 billion dollars (11.2 billion euros), and the corruption scandals that surrounded the sites.

© 2020 AFP