December 03, (THEWILL) – Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now World Athletics, whose tenure ended in disgrace, has died at the age of 88.
Diack served as President of the IAAF from 1999 to 2015 and was a previous member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He died at his home in Senegal.
According to his son, Papa Massata Diack: “He died at home of a natural death.” His funeral will take place later today.
The IAAF ex-president was found guilty of directing a group that covered up Russian doping in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes. He was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended, by a French court in September 2020.
However, Diack was kept under home arrest and eventually released on bail.
Diack crimes included multiple counts of corruption, some of which were related to the Russian doping scandal, such as accepting €3.2 million ($3.8 million/£2.75 million) in bribes from athletes suspected of doping in order to conceal their test results and allow them to compete, including at the 2012 London Olympics.
Papa Massata was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison, along with four others: Gabriel Dollé, the former IAAF head of anti-doping, Lamine Diack’s advisor Habib Cisse, ex-Russian Athletics Federation President Valentin Balakhnichev, and Alexei Melnikov, the former Russian national team head distance coach.
Papa Massata and his father were forced to pay World Athletics €5 million (£4.6 million/$5.9 million) in damages for breach of trust after being found guilty of syphoning out $15 million (£11.5 million/€12.5 million) to his firms when his father was in charge at the IAAF.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
