Lamine Diack, the disgraced former IAAF president, has been ordered to stand trial on charges of corruption and money laundering. It follows a four-year investigation in France into doping cover-ups, extortion and bribe-taking in world athletics.
The 86-year-old, who led the International Association of Athletics Federations from 1999-2015 and was one of the most influential men in global sport, is accused of being part of a conspiracy to bury positive drug tests by Russian athletes in return for money. This conspiracy also involved the Russian athletics chief and IAAF treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev, Russia’s former national middle distance coach Alexei Melnikov, Diack’s former aide Habib Cissé and the IAAF’s former head of anti-doping, Gabriel Dollé. These four will also face trial on the same charges, along with Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, the disgraced former IAAF marketing executive who was banned for life from athletics in 2016. They all deny the charges.
All six will be tried for their role in the case of Liliya Shobukhova, the London Marathon winner in 2010, who paid $600,000 in exchange for covering up violations in her athlete biological passport thus allowing her to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
According to the prosecutors, Diack and his son, who oversees a sports consulting business called Black Tidings, solicited payments from athletes, either directly or indirectly, totalling €3.45m in exchange for covering up positive doping tests and allowing athletes to go on competing.
Massata Diack has also emerged as a central figure in French judicial probes of suspected corruption involving the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games and other sports events. The judicial official says the younger Diack will stand trial for complicity in corruption and money laundering. Believed to be living in Senegal, he could be tried in absentia.
The French authorities have also been investigating allegations Diack Sr received bribes for his votes in several bidding contests for high-profile sports events. The former International Olympic Committee member is claimed to have controlled the votes of several African colleagues.
It is alleged that Diack Sr, a former mayor of Senegal’s capital Dakar, used these payments to fund political campaigns in his homeland, as well as a lavish lifestyle in Monaco, where the IAAF is based.