The scandal has dealt a severe blow to the image of the sport : the former boss of world athletics, Lamine Diack, is expected this Monday, June 8, at the court of Paris to be tried with his son and four players accused of a pact of corruption to protect Russian athletes doped.
After a false start in January, because of procedural problems, the Senegalese 87-year-old faces up to ten years in prison before the 32nd house of corrections, where he was appearing for active and passive bribery, breach of trust and money laundering, organised.
The case had precipitated the fall of the cacique of sports in the world with a thousand lives, former athlete, and political, became the first leader of non-european of the international athletics Federation (IAAF, 1999-2015), and is now accused by the public prosecutor national financial have also put in place a ” real criminal organization.”
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A case for multiple branches
Since his arrest in Paris in November 2015, the pile of folders dark of international sport has grown : Russia has been accused of “doping” institutional ” and Lamine Diack is also being prosecuted for corruption in Paris, suspected of having pronounced influence in the awarding of the olympic games in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Charges he denies. “Lamine Diack is combative. He wants to defend and he wants to wash his honour, he knows how he has led the institution, ” says his lawyer Simon Ndiaye.
At his trial, it is to be expected with one of his former advisers, the lawyer Habib Cisse, and the former head of the service’s anti-doping the IAAF, Gabriel Dollé, tried for bribery.
If Lamine Diack has prohibition to leave the country, the French justice has never been able to go to one of the suspects key, his son, Papa Massata Diack, a former advisor to marketing of the IAAF application since Dakar the adjournment of the trial.
Two other defendants are expected to miss the call, the former president of the Russian athletics Federation Valentin Balakhnitchev, and the former national coach of the long distance races Alexey Melnikov.
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Sport, business, doping and geopolitical
The case starts in early 2010, with the arrival in the arsenal of anti-doping the biological passport, which can detect changes in blood suspicious. The grip tightens on Russia, and in November 2011, a list of 23 athletes suspected of doping at the EPO is established.
At the same time, Lamine Diack, his son and Habib Cissé visit to Moscow. The disciplinary files, them, drag in length, allowing multiple athletes to participate in the London 2012 olympics. Some will be sacred (Kirdyapkin 50 km walk, Zaripova 3 000 steeplechase), before being punished and deprived.
Lamine Diack acknowledged that the sanctions had been staggered to avoid burdening the image of Russia and promote the negotiations on the rights tv and the sponsors for the World championships 2013 in Moscow. While he had contacts with the Kremlin, he also conceded that he had granted 1.5 million euros to Russia to campaign for the presidential election in senegal 2012 against outgoing president Abdoulaye Wade, finally defeated by Macky Sall. The French judges have deplored the lack of cooperation of Senegal and are in the order that Papa Massata Diack, has received a diplomatic passport in 2014.
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A trial is out of the ordinary
But for the lawyers of Lamine Diack, the Russian athletes were eventually punished (most in 2014) and their client wanted to save the IAAF of bankruptcy.
The case was able to see the light of day as the marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova, finally suspended, has asked for a refund to his blackmailers. A transfer of 300 000 euros to its profit has allowed it to be traced back to Papa Massata Diack. The names of several other athletes and more money to appear on notes seized from Habib Cissé, suggesting that they paid in order to enjoy protection, but the trace of the money has not been recovered.
Lamine Diack is also deemed to have allowed his son to take ownership of “several million euros” in the negotiations with the sponsors, either by imposing its companies as intermediaries, either by granting commissions ” exorbitant “. The international federation, the civil party, claiming 24.6 million euros in damages to the defendants on this part, on a total loss which it considers to 41millions euros.
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writing will advise you
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