The former head of the International Association of Athletics Federations is under investigation for allegedly taking payments in exchange for deferring sanctions against Russian drug cheats before the 2012 Olympics, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
Lamine Diack, who was president of IAAF from 1999 until August 2015, when Seb Coe took over, is accused of taking at least $220,000 from Russia in 2011 to cover up positive doping tests, the AP said. He has been placed under criminal investigation for corruption and money laundering. Gabriel Dolle, the former director of the federation’s anti-doping department, has also been taken into custody.
The IAAF issued a statement on Wednesday morning confirming that a French police investigation has commenced, in addition to an ongoing probe by the World Anti-Doping Agency commission that has been looking into claims of systemic Russian drug cheating and an IAAF cover-up, which was reported in a German documentary last December.
“The IAAF is fully cooperating with all investigations as it has been since the beginning of the process,” according to the written statement. “As part of the French investigation, police visited the IAAF HQ offices yesterday to carry out interviews and to access documentation.”
Diack, 82, of Senegal, was arrested on Sunday, along with his advisor Habib Cisse, and released on Tuesday, Health & Injuries.
WADA also released a statement on Wednesday saying the action of the French authorities was "a result of information passed on by WADA's Independent Commission."
In the past year, Coe has denied that the IAAF has turned a blind eye toward doping in track and field.
“It is a declaration of war on my sport,” Coe said, in August. “There is nothing in our history of competence and integrity in drug testing that warrants this kind of attack.”