Too late ? Too old ? Too empty? Certainly. Lamine Diack, 87 years old since Sunday June 7, will appear this Monday morning before the 32nd criminal chamber of the Paris judicial court. The former president of the International Athletics Federation (1999 to 2015) must appear on charges of corruption, organized money laundering and breach of trust. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
On paper, the audience of the Senegalese, long presented as the most influential African sports leader in the Olympic movement, does not lack interest. For six days, Lamine Diack and his lawyers will have to shed light on a vast system of corruption and political interference. A truly " criminal organization », to use the words of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), having made it possible to extort 3,45 million euros from doped Russian athletes in exchange for the promise to hush up their affair.
Explosive, therefore. The only problem, but a major one: the timing of the trial today seems very out of sync with the facts, and the casting of the defendants does not agree with the accusations.
The timing, first of all. Lamine Diack chaired the IAAF between 1999 and 2015. He was arrested in France in November 2015, along with his legal advisor, Parisian lawyer Habib Cissé. The facts date back to the 2010s. Since then, the IAAF has become World Athletics, Sebastian Coe succeeded Lamine Diack, Russian athletics has been suspended and all the players in the affair have disappeared from the landscape.
The investigation opened by Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke was closed in March 2019. In the process, Lamine Diack was indicted. His trial should have started on January 12, but the Senegalese justice system transmitted at the last minute banking documents relating to several companies of Papa Massata Diack, the son of the former president of the IAAF, who is also being prosecuted. The Financial Prosecutor’s Office considered that it could not “ do not act as if these parts do not exist. » The opening of the trial was postponed.
The casting now. Certainly, Lamine Diack will be present this Monday morning at the Paris court. But it is not certain that his words, at 87 years old, respond with clarity and precision to the prosecution's questions.
Habid Cissé should also appear before the 32nd correctional chamber. But he was not a major player in the extortion operation set up at the IAAF.
Gabriel Dollé, the former head of anti-doping at the IAAF, now aged 78, is also announced among those present. He has already admitted the facts, explaining that he received 190.000 euros in cash in exchange for his silence and passivity in the face of cases of doping by Russian athletes.
Three present, therefore, for an equal number of absent. At the top of the list, Papa Massata Diack, former IAAF marketing consultant. One of the key figures in the trial, the Senegalese has taken refuge in his country since his indictment. He will not make the trip to Paris.
Papa Massata Diack will be represented by one of his three lawyers, the only Parisian of the trio. But Maître Antoine Beauquier has already announced that he would request a postponement of the trial, claiming that his two colleagues, both Senegalese, cannot travel to France due to travel restrictions. The request will be examined this Monday morning.
Also absent are the two Russians from the cast: the former president of the Russian Athletics Federation, Valentin Balakhnichev, who was also treasurer of the IAAF; and former national coach Alexei Melnikov. They remained in Russia, where they are the subject of an international arrest warrant for having participated in the payment of bribes to protect their athletes.
The World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC and World Athletics, but also two former French athletes, Christelle Daunay and Hind Dehiba, have filed civil suits.
After six long days of hearing, the verdict should be delivered on Thursday June 18. Under house arrest in France for more than 4 years, Lamine Diack will not emerge unscathed. But his conviction will no longer change the course of history.
