There was widespread criticism in Senegal Wednesday after the decision taken by a French court to sentence former track federation president Lamine Diack to two years in prison for corruption during his tenure at the IAAF.
There was widespread criticism in Senegal Wednesday after the decision taken by a French court to sentence former track federation president Lamine Diack to two years in prison for corruption during his tenure at the IAAF. People accused the court of racism and said the verdict should be struck down.
Diack was allegedly involved in a scheme that allowed Russian athletes to keep competing when they should have been suspended for doping, after they paid millions in hush money.
The guilty verdict in a Paris court represented a spectacular fall from grace for the 87-year-old Diack, who was the head of the IAAF from 1999-2015, mixed with global leaders and was influential in the world of Olympic sports. The court also gave Diack a two year suspended sentence and fined him 500,000 euros ($590,000).
Diack was found guilty of multiple corruption charges and breach of trust but acquitted of a money laundering charge. Wearing a white robe he sat impassive in front of chief judge, Rose-Marie Hunault as she read out the guilty verdict and sentence.
The judge detailed his role in the payoff scheme, dubbed “full protection”, that squeezed Russian athletes suspected of doping for about 3.2 million euros ($3.74 million) in hush money. The court also handed guilty verdicts to five other people, including Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, who worked as an IAAF marketing consultant.
The judge said $15 million was funneled to the younger Diack’s companies while his father was in charge at the IAAF. He lives in Senegal, which has refused to extradite him. The court sentenced him in his absence to five years in prison and a fine of 1 million euros ($1.17 million).