This archive report was first published on 10 June 2020.
August 21, 2015, shows outgoing International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack gesturing during a press conference in Beijing, ahead of the 2015 IAAF World Championships. (AFP)
Former anti-doping chief Gabriel Dolle testified in a French court on Monday that Lamine Diack, the Senegalese former president of the IAAF, urged him to bend the rules on Russian doping cases to avoid a scandal that would scare off sponsors.
Dolle, a 78-year-old Frenchman, is being tried in Paris alongside Diack, who is accused of accepting millions of dollars to cover up Russian doping tests. Dolle himself is charged with receiving bribes amounting to 190,000 euros between 2013 and 2014.
According to Dolle, Diack asked him to consider the critical financial situation of the IAAF, which had drawn up a list of 23 Russian athletes whose anti-doping tests gave cause for concern in late 2011 and early 2012.
“With the list... it was going to cause a scandal which could have influenced negotiations with sponsors and put them in jeopardy,” Dolle told the court.
When the judge pointed out that some of the names on the list who were allowed to continue competing not only went on to take part in the 2012 London Olympics, but won medals, Dolle said he had been “betrayed”.
“I was slightly a hostage to a commitment I had given my president,” Dolle said, referring to Diack.
Diack, who was in charge of the IAAF between 1999 and 2015, will give evidence when the trial resumes on Wednesday. He is charged with giving and receiving bribes, breach of trust, and organised money laundering.
