Geometric paradox. As the noose tightens around Lamine Dick, the scope of his alleged corruption is now significantly wider. Suspected of having played an active role in the buying of votes for the attribution of the 2016 Games to Rio de Janeiro, the former president of the IAAF could also be concerned by another affair, more recent by 4 years. It touches on the conditions for Tokyo’s victory in the race for the 2020 Summer Games.

According to Le Monde, the French investigators in charge of awarding the Games to the Japanese capital have in their possession a new element. An exchange of emails between Lamine Diack and his son, Papa Massata Diack, currently wanted by Interpol in connection with a corruption case.

Facts. On September 7, 2013, the IOC met in session in Buenos Aires. On today's agenda, the vote for the award of the Summer Games in 2020. Three cities are in the running: Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo. According to a document revealed by Le Monde, Lamine Diack would have received the following electronic message from his son: “Information from your African colleague, it seems that Sheikh Ahmad is doing everything to get Africans to vote for Madrid!!!! We need to lock down during the break. »

The email would be signed: Massata. Lamine Diack, who still chaired the IAAF and was still a full member of the IOC, responds: “We can talk about it after the session. » Clarification: quoted in the email, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah is the current president of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). At the time, he was considered one of the most influential members of the IOC, capable of swaying a vote to one side or the other. A position less true today. He was absent during the last IOC session, in September in Lima.

For the investigators, there is no possible doubt: the author of the email is indeed Papa Massata Diack. Already indicted in the IAAF investigation for “active and passive corruption” and “aggravated money laundering”, Lamine Diack is now placed under the status of assisted witness in this second case. A new charge which comes at a time when his supporters in Senegal have launched a petition to obtain that he can return to his country during the investigation. Not won.