Ex-IAAF chief accused of taking bribes to cover up doping

Lamine Diack, the former IAAF president, has been placed under investigation as part of a corruption and aggravated money-laundering investigation and is suspected of taking at least €200,000 from Russia Athletics to cover up positive doping tests, French authorities have said.

The news comes on the day it was revealed that French police also raided the offices of athletics’ governing body in Monaco and took away caches of documents.

The IAAF's new British president, Sebastian Coe, was at IAAF headquarters at the time of the police raid and "volunteered himself to answer any questions", a source familiar with the investigation said.

“He answered any questions they wanted,” the source said. “But they did not come here to question Seb Coe.”

On a sobering day for the IAAF, Gabriel Dollé, the former director of its medical and anti-doping department – making him the most senior anti-doping official in the sport until he left the IAAF last year – has been taken into custody in Nice.

Meanwhile, Habib Cissé, a senior legal adviser to Diack at the IAAF, was also placed under investigation for corruption by judges acting on evidence provided by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Marathon runner

The investigation by French police into the IAAF is believed to centre on the case of the Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova, who last year alleged that two members of the Russian Athletics Federation extorted $450,000 (€414,000) from her in return for covering up a positive test.

“God knows what’s going on there,” the Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said yesterday. “We’ve already said that our federation had problems. The old management isn’t working there any more. Understand that there are a lot of criminal cases going on in the world right now and those are unclear cases.”

Last December The Guardian broke the story that Dollé, whose job was to oversee all anti-doping-related aspects in the sport and to liaise with Wada and other national anti-doping agencies, had left the IAAF after being questioned by its ethics commission.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that Wada first approached French prosecutors in August with evidence of wrongdoing. According to AP, the official said Diack is suspected of pocketing “about €200,000” to cover up an as yet unknown number of doping positives. The money is thought to have come from the Russian athletics federation, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Replaced

Diack, who was replaced by Seb Coe in August after 16 years in charge of track and field’s governing body, was unable to be reached for comment. However, in a statement the IAAF said it was cooperating with the police investigation.

It added: “The IAAF confirms that, emanating from separate ongoing investigations by Wada’s independent commission and the IAAF’s own independent ethics commission into allegations surrounding its anti-doping rules and regulations, a French police investigation has now commenced.

“The IAAF is fully cooperating with all investigations as it has been from the beginning of the process. As part of the French investigation, police visited the IAAF HQ offices yesterday to carry out interviews and to access documentation.

“The IAAF will make no further comment at this time.” Guardian Service