Former IAAF president Lamine Diack, who had previously been accused of “passive corruption,” for taking one million euros ($1.1 million) in bribes to cover up drug tests by Russian athletes, faces newer, tougher corruption charges for the concealment.
Lamine Diack faces tougher corruption charges in Russian #doping coverup probe. https://t.co/uELcPyh7Q6
— Steve Wilson (@SteveWilson_LDN) December 22, 2015
The Paris financial prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press that Diack, who served as president of the IAAF from 1999 to 2015, is now accused of “active corruption,” which “usually refers to the offering or paying of the bribe.” His previous accusation suggested he only received a bribe.
The AP reports an official told them the new charges are based around Diack allegedly bribing Gabriel Dolle (currently under investigation himself), IAAF’s former anti-doping chief to delay reporting violations by Russian athletes.
The new preliminary charges will allow more time to file formal charges while Diack isn’t allowed to leave the France.
Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, who’s currently under a French corruption probe himself, told the Associated Press the investigation is destroying all the good work his father has done.
“Suddenly they are just going to destroy all he’s built over the last 16 years and all the 39 years he’s spent in the IAAF, so I find it very sad and I could not recognize certain acts or certain declarations made by certain people,” he was quoted as saying from Senegal.”
The French paper Le Monde also reported last week Diack admitted to French police that he asked Valentin Balakhnichev, the former president of the Russian athletics federation, for more than 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) in 2011 to run for a political campaign in his native Senegal. Those reports have been denied by Senegalese president Macky Sall.
First FIFA and now the IAAF. Who’s up next for a corruption scandal this week? (IOC we stare in your general direction.)
