Photo: Former IAAF President Lamine Diack (Getty Images)
Former IAAF President Lamine Diack , who is the at the centre of a major scandal involving corruption and fraud, is beginning to come clean as he admitted to police on Wednesday that he asked Russia for €1.5m to run a political campaign in his native country Senegal.
The man who is facing financial prosecutions by French authorities admitted that he spoke with the former Russian Athletics Federation President and IAAF treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev about needing money.
Diack is reported to have used the money obtained to push his campaign against the opposition which was Senegal’s then-President Abdoulaye Wade.
An Interview transcript obtained by the Authorities revealed worded evidence where it was reported to have the statement which quoted: “I told him that to win the elections, I needed about €1.5m. He said to me: ‘We’ll try to find it, no problem.’
One of the main Russian athletes involved in the payment for hiding drug results is former distance runner Liliya Shobukhova, who has since been a chief whistle blower for the World Anti-Doping Agency this year.
She confessed to paying moneys to have her doping violations covered up. .According to testimony she has given, Shobukhova paid more than $600,000 (£435,000) for violations to be covered up so that she was not suspended.
Hot on the heels of his confession in his ongoing trial is the government of Senegal denying the allegations that current President Macky Sall’s , which was the opposition then, got help for his campaign from Diack. The Government spokesperson Seydou Gueye was resolute in saying that Sall was never involved in any such activity, neither did he benefit.
The biggest scandal to have hit Track and Field has caught several ex and current big guns in its net. The first major hearing since the arrest and charge of seveal of the persons involved was concluded on Friday, by the the IAAF ethics commission.
The three-day hearing also involved ex IAAF treasurer Balakhnichev, Diack’s son Papa Massata Diack, the former IAAF anti-doping director Gabriel Dollé and the Russian Federation’s former chief coach for long-distance athletes, Alexei Melnikov.
The decision from the disciplinary committee is expected to be revealed in early January 2016.
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