Diack says he held back bans for sake of funding

PARIS • The former head of global track and field, Lamine Diack, yesterday said at his corruption trial he had agreed to delay and stagger investigations into suspected Russian doping cases for the sake of the sport's "financial health".

The Senegalese, who in 16 years at the head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now known as World Athletics, was one of the most powerful leaders in Olympic sport, until his arrest in November 2015.

The 87-year-old told a court in Paris that he had taken the decision to delay bans after 23 Russian athletes had failed tests.

"It was mainly for the financial health of the IAAF," he said. "The financial health of the IAAF had to be safeguarded and I was prepared to make that compromise."

Diack has admitted that bans were delayed in order to allow the Russian athletes concerned to compete in the 2012 London Olympics and the World Athletics Championships in Moscow the following year.

The aim was to prevent the cases from derailing talks with prospective Russian sponsors, including state-owned bank VTB and broadcaster RTR.

Prosecutors have accused Diack of directly or indirectly demanding €3.45 million (S$5.43 million) from Russian athletes in order to have their names cleared and he is being tried for corruption, money laundering and breach of trust.

The delay in imposing bans, under an operation described as "full protection", allowed some of the Russians to win medals at the London Games.

Diack, however, yesterday declined to be drawn on allegations that he obtained US$1.5 million (S$2.08 million) of Russian funds to back eventual winner Macky Sall's campaign for the 2012 Senegal presidential election in exchange for covering up or delaying offences by the Russian athletes.

Mr Sall remains the country's leader, having won re-election in February last year.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE