Lamine Diack, the former President of World Athletics (formerly known as the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), has died at the age of 88.
Lamine Diack, who was convicted last year due to corruption, died in his home in Senegal today, December 3, 2021. And the person who announced his death was his son.
His son, Massata Diack, announced his father’s death to News Report Media Reuters, and according to his son, he died at home of a natural death.
His burial will be later today. Last year, when Diack was convicted for corruption, his lawyers said that he was poor in health and that he would die if he stayed in prison.
Because of this, Lamine Diack was put under house arrest and he was released on bail recently.
The owner of a Senegal football club called Jaraaf, Cheikh Seck, was the one who paid his bail, paying 500,000 euros (231,647,924.55 naira).
The owner of the football club said Diack was a good man and a great leader.
“We wanted him to come back home. And it took us one month to gather the 500,000 euros. ” Cheikh Seck stated following Diack’s death.
On September 2020, a French high court found Diack guilty of collecting bribes from Russian athletes , who they suspected was using drugs because they were covering up their test results.
The French Court also found him guilty of collecting Russian money to finance the 2012 presidential campaign of Macky Sall in Senegal.
Court said that he entered this situation Bevause he wanted to slow down anti-doping procedures, and also asked for bribe which is about €3.45m from athletes who they suspect of using drugs.
The high Court claimed that Diack gave officials of IAAF money to cover up for the athletes. The court gave Diack four years prison sentence but two years was suspended, meaning he was sentenced to two years in prison.
