The noose is tightening around Lamine Diack. The former president of the IAAF, under house arrest in France for almost 4 years, could well be sent to court. He might even have to share the dock with one of his sons, Papa Massata Diack.
THEAFP reveals that the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) is demanding that the Senegalese leader and his offspring, who have taken refuge in Senegal since the start of the affair, be judged in Paris. Now aged 85, Lamine Diack is accused of “ active and passive corruption” and " organized gang laundering ».
The ball is now in the court of investigating judge Renaud van Ruymbeke, in charge of the case. If he followed these requisitions, of which theAFP became aware, the French magistrate would return the former president of the IAAF and five other protagonists to the dock.
At the top of the list, Papa Massata Diack. Long presented as one of his illustrious father's advisors at the IAAF, particularly on marketing, the Senegalese is suspected of " having approached the Russian sports authorities to negotiate protection against payment” of athletes targeted for doping. Clearly, the two members of the Diack clan, the father and the son, would have paid the Russians for their silence in several cases of doping.
Papa Massata Diack was never able to be heard by French justice. However, an arrest warrant was issued against him. In vain. Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC, is said to have put pressure on the Senegalese political authorities to collaborate with the French justice system on the matter. In vain.
Papa Massata Diack is still a refugee in Senegal. In complete tranquility. The PNF requests that he be tried for “ organized gang laundering », who are " active corruption” and " complicity in passive corruption”. Not less. The Senegalese's name was recently cited in another corruption case, relating to the awarding of the Summer Games to Tokyo in 2020. It cost the Japanese Tsunekazu Takeda his place at the IOC.
In its 48-page indictment, the prosecution suggests that “ under the leadership of its president and with several years of embezzlement, the IAAF has succeeded in reconciling corruption and the encouragement of doping. »
Among the numerous slip-ups noted by the French justice investigation, the case of marathon runner Lilya Shobukhova speaks volumes. According to an IAAF report, the Russian athlete used EPO extensively. In exchange for the silence of the international organization on her case, she agreed to pay 450.000 euros. For nothing. Finally suspended in 2014, she asked to be reimbursed. The sum of 300.000 euros was returned to him, in the form of a transfer issued by the company Black Tidings, domiciled in Singapore and linked to Papa Massata Diack.
Among the other names cited in the PNF indictment, an advisor to Lamine Diack, Habib Cissé, and the former director of the IAAF medical department, Gabriel Dollé. They are both accused of “ passive bribery"
The last two targeted are Russian citizens: Valentin Balakhnichev, former president of the Russian Athletics Federation, now banned for life from the IAAF, and Alexeï Melnikov, former head middle distance coach in Russia. They are under arrest warrants, the first for passive and active corruption, and aggravated money laundering, the second for passive corruption.
At this stage of the investigation, a trial seems inevitable. Lamine Diack will not be able to escape it. In the case of his son, nothing is less certain.
