The trial that could rock the world of sport
A CRIMINAL trial which could ultimately expose corruption surrounding the awarding of the 2020 Toyko Olympics, 2022 Qatar World Cup, doping cover-ups in Russia as well as Russian attempts to influence foreign elections will start in Paris tomorrow, with some huge names on the International Olympic Committee sweating to see if they are named in court.
Lamine Diack, the man who preceded Seb Coe as president of the IAAF and who was once described by Coe as the ‘spiritual leader of our sport’, faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in a French prison as he goes on trial at court No32 of the Paris Correctional Court, which specialises in financial corruption.
Though this initial phase of the trial will deal with an alleged cover-up of Russian positive doping tests in 2012 by the former athletics chief, later this year more complex allegations will be aired concerning payments made to companies connected to Diack to secure this year’s Olympics for Toyko and the 2019 World
Athletics Championships for
Doha. And that case could involve the award of the World Cup to Qatar.
Diack, 86, who faces the prospect of 10 years in jail if found guilty, has already spent four years under house arrest in Paris. He maintains his innocence but has the potential to embarrass leading names in sports administration if he decides to speak out.
‘I will finally be able to explain myself,’ Diack told Jeune Afrique in his only interview. ‘My state of health is no longer the best,’ he added, complaining that following his arrest in France in November 2015 he has been denied access to medical treatment in his former home of Monaco. Diack had his passport withdrawn and has lived near Paris since 2015.
But he not only faces the rest of his life in jail but financial ruin if found guilty. The Mail on Sunday understands that World Athletics, the renamed IAAF, will pursue its former president and his codefendants for the loss of earnings suffered by their action which directly led to sponsors adidas and Nestle pulling out of the sport. World Athletics president Coe spoke to police in the course of the investigation but is not required in court as a witness.
Investigating judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke alleges that Diack and his son, Papa, were at the centre of a vast system of corruption aimed at covering up Russian doping in exchange for bribes.
This phase of proceedings has six defendants on trial but only three will appear in the dock: Diack and Gabriel Dollé, the IAAF’s former head of anti-doping, who faces a charge of corruption, and Habib Cissé, former legal advisor to the IAAF, who is accused of complicity in corruption.
Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, charged with corruption, money laundering, concealment and breach of trust, has fled to Senegal and is refusing to return for the trial. Also on trial are the former president of the Russian Athletics Federation Valentin Balakhnichev (corruption and money laundering) and Russia’s former head athletics coach Alexeï Melnikov (corruption) who have not been extradited.
The most well-publicised of the cover-ups being addressed this week is that of Liliya Shobukhova, the 2010 London Marathon winner, though she was subsequently disqualified for doping.
Lamine Diack, advised by lawyers William Bourdon and Simon Ndiaye, is expected to get a full cross examination in the witness box, meaning IOC watchers will be hanging on his every word, curious to see what he reveals.
But it’s the rest of the case later in the year which could blow apart the sporting world. That will cover a network of alleged corruption around sporting events including this year’s Toyko Olympics and the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar.
Black Tidings, the company linked to Papa Diack, had very few cash inflows, but it received $2m from Tokyo 2020, hosts of this year’s Olympics. Payments were split in two, the first $1m tranche in July 2013, two months before voting would take place at the IOC Congress on who would host the 2020 Games — a hard-fought contest between Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid — and a month later a further payment of $1m was paid from Tokyo 2020 to Black Tidings.