TheCable

Lamine Diack, former head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to four years in prison.

The 87-year-old Senegalese received the sentence, two of which are suspended, in a French court on Wednesday after his money laundering role in a Russian doping scandal was proven by prosecutors.

According to the BBC, Diack was convicted of accepting bribes to cover up doping cases of suspected Russian athletes and allowing them participate at meetings, including in the 2012 London Olympics.

Papa Massata Diack, the former IAAF chief’s son, who was banned for life from the sport in 2016, was also handed a five-year prison term and €1 million fine for his role.

In an investigation that spanned four years, Diack was given a maximum fine of €500,000 after claims that he took payments of more than 3 million euros to cover up cheating.

He was also found guilty of accepting Russian money to help finance Macky Sall’s campaign for the 2012 Senegal presidential election, in exchange for slowing anti-doping procedures.

The judge said the former long jumper’s actions had “undermined the values of athletics and the fight against doping”.

Diack’s lawyers, however, said the prison sentence for the octogenarian, who has been under house arrest since November 2015 in Paris, was “unfair and inhumane”, and that they would appeal the judgement.

Diack, previously an influential figures in world sport, was president of the IAAF for 16 years — from 1999 to 2015.

The IAAF is now known as World Athletics.