THE’information was given by a family member of the former IAAF president. No details were given as to the causes of death. Lamine Diack therefore died on the night of Thursday to Friday, at the age of 88, in Dakar, a city of which he was mayor from 1978 to 1980. He returned in May after being detained in France for years for a corruption case.
Last years complicated by court cases
Lamine Diack headed the International Athletics Federation (IAAF, 1999-2015). He returned to Senegal in May, for the first time since his indictment in 2015. He had been detained in France for years because of an alleged corruption case around doping in Russia. Lamine Diack had, in September 2020, been sentenced by French justice to four years in prison, two of which was closed, and a fine of 500,000 euros for corruption and breach of trust. He had appealed against this conviction and a date for a new trial remained to be determined. He was convicted on September 16, 2020 in Paris, in particular for having hidden doping cases in Russia or delaying sanctions against doped Russian athletes in exchange for funding and for promoting sponsorship and dissemination negotiations with Russia.
His indictment in another case, still not tried, had prevented him from returning to Senegal. He had had his passport confiscated as part of the judicial review imposed by the judges. In this second case, Mr. Diack had been indicted since March 27, 2019, still for corruption, within the framework of the attributions of the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio and 2020 in Tokyo, but also in the processes of attribution of the Worlds of Beijing athletics in 2015, then the 2017 and 2019 Worlds, for which Qatar was a candidate. The judge in charge of the investigations had, before his return to Senegal in May, lifted his ban on leaving French territory against the payment of a deposit of 500,000 euros corresponding to the fine incurred, and on condition that he continues to respond. to judicial summons. A renowned Senegalese football club, Jaraaf de Dakar (1D division), had sold part of his property to pay the deposit. Lamine Diack was twice president of Jaraaf, in the 1970s and 2000s.
