Ex-world athletics president stands trial for taking bribes

 Lamine Diack, the former head of the governing body for world athletics, was at the heart of a corruption scam, prosecutors told a French court on Monday.

The prosecutors said the scam saw Russian athletes paying six-figure sums to have their names erased from doping lists.

The 87-year-old Diack, who led the then International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from 1999 to 2015, stood before the French judges on the first day of trial.

He stood as charges of corruption, money laundering and breach of trust were read out to the court.

Prosecutors allege Diack solicited bribes totalling 3.45 million euros (3.9 million dollars) from athletes suspected of doping.

The bribes were to cover up test results and let them continue competing, including at the 2012 London Olympics.

They also say Diack obtained 1.5 million dollars of Russian funds while negotiating sponsorship and television rights to help finance Macky Sall’s campaign for the 2012 Senegal presidential election.

This was in exchange for slowing anti-doping procedures.

Diack has previously denied wrongdoing.

He spoke on Monday only to confirm his identity and is due to testify on Wednesday.

His lawyer William Bourdon described him as “serene and determined”.

“The fact (that) financial exchanges took place is not enough on its own to prove corruption,” Bourdon told reporters at the end of the first session.

Diack, who has been under house arrest ahead of the trial, faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

His son, Papa Massata, who fled France for his native Senegal after the French investigation began, is also accused of playing a role in the plot, and is being tried in absentia.

The court rejected a request by Papa Massata’s French lawyer that the trial be postponed because coronavirus border restrictions meant his Senegalese lawyers could not be present.

Senegal has refused to extradite him.

Four other defendants have been charged in the case, including Habib Cisse, Diack’s former lawyer at the IAAF, and Gabriel Dollé, who oversaw doping tests at the IAAF.

The other two are former head of Russian athletics, Valentin Balakhnitchev, and former Russian athletics’ head coach, Alexei Melnikov.

Balakhnitchev and Melnikov were not in court.

The then IAAF, which is now World Athletics, had banned Russia (described in the reports as a “doping haven’’  from competing as a nation in international athletics events since 2015.

Dollé denied taking bribes in order to allow Russian athletes to compete.

He told the court he had agreed only to keep a low profile on the large number of positive Russian doping tests to help the IAAF find sponsors.

“Mr Diack had asked me to consider the fact that the IAAF was in a perilous financial state and needed sponsors,” he told the court, which is presided over by judge Rose-Marie Hunault.

“There was never any question of allowing the Russian athletes to participate in international competitions.”

The IAAF, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were both represented in court as victims of the alleged offences.

The trial is expected to run until June 18, with judgement handed down at a later date.