The former president of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), Senegalese Lamine Diack, was sentenced this Wednesday to four years in prison, two of them exempt from compliance, for having charged illegal commissions in exchange for concealing doping from Russian athletes.
Diack, 87, who led the Federation – now World Athletics – between 1999 and 2015, has been convicted of active and passive corruption, as well as breach of trust, and sentenced to pay the maximum fine of 500,000 euros, according to the gala press.
The sentence was known this Wednesday in the room of the Correctional Court of Paris to which Diack had attended, accused of having created, together with five other people, a corrupt plot to pocketing millions of euros for hiding the positive tests of Russian athletesIn addition to having created a business network with his son to divert funds from the IAAF.
The scandal had come to light in 2012 by the mouth of Russian athletes unhappy with the system created, which led to the exclusion of that country from international competitions for four years in the sporting arena.
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Papa Massata Diack, son of the former president, will appeal the sentence that condemns him to five years in prison and a fine of one million euros
Papa Massata Diack, Lamine Diack’s son, has announced that he will appeal the sentence, which has sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of one million euros. “It is an unfair conviction because the rules of a fair trial were not followed. My client was not allowed to participate in the trial to defend himself, ”his lawyer, Moussa Sarr, told the Senegalese information portal Emedia.sn.
Papa Massata Diack is found guilty of corruption, breach of trust and money laundering. Convicted of having charged illegal commissions in exchange for concealing doping of Russian athletes, he has an international arrest warrant pending that remains in force.
Among the others sentenced is the French doctor Gabriel Dollé, responsible for the fight against doping at the IAAF between 1999 and 2014, sentenced to two years exempt from compliance and a fine of 140,000 euros; and Habib Cissé, Diack’s lawyer, sentenced for contributing to the corruption system with three years in prison, two of them without compliance, and a fine of 100,000 euros. Also not present were the Russians Valentin Balakhnichev, former president of the national athletics federation; and Alexei Melnikov, a former coach, whose delivery the Moscow authorities have opposed. Both have been sentenced to three and two years in prison, respectively, and the arrest warrant against them remains.
