For Papa Massata Diack, sentenced to five years in prison for corruption in the 2011 Russian athletes doping case, it is a return to trial. The Court of Cassation in fact referred the case, a scandal which had shaken the world of sport at the time, to the Paris Court of Appeal where Papa Massata Diack will be tried again for complicity in passive corruption.
Papa Massata Diack, son of the former boss of world athletics Lamine Diack, also shaken by this affair, was sentenced at first instance and then on appeal to five years of imprisonment for “passive corruption, complicity in passive corruption, corruption and concealment”, recalls the Court of Cassation in its judgment on Wednesday.
The high court considered that the Court of Appeal had not sufficiently justified its decision concerning the guilt of Mr. Diack “on the charge of complicity in passive corruption”. Papa Massata Diack, former marketing consultant for the International Athletics Federation (IAAF, which has since become World Athletics), will therefore be tried again by the Paris Court of Appeal where the sentences – he had been sentenced to a fine of €500,000 in addition to his prison sentence – will be re-discussed.
This partial annulment offers a new reprieve to Papa Massata Diack who was found guilty in September 2020 at first instance of complicity within a bribery system aimed at hiding cases of blood doping among Russian athletes in 2011 , a year before the London Olympics.
By dragging out sanction procedures against these athletes with suspect biological passports, the International Federation allowed some of them to participate in these Games. In return, the major Russian sponsors had renewed their contracts with the IAAF, which has since become World Athletics, with a view to the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. Nicknamed “PMD”, Papa Massata Diack was also found guilty of having embezzled funds amounting to €15 million from sponsorship contracts, via a set-up of shell companies.
