Former IAAF chief Lamine Diack faces fresh corruption charges

Having previously been accused of 'passive corruption', Diack is now accused of 'active corruption'

Former IAFF president Lamine Diack (Getty Images)

French magistrates have filed new, tougher corruption charges against Lamine Diack, the former International Association of Athletics Federations president, in connection with the alleged cover-up of Russian doping.

Diack had previously been accused of “passive corruption” on suspicion he took around $1.1m (£745,000) to cover up positive drug tests by Russian athletes.

According to an official with the Paris financial prosecutor’s office yesterday, Diack is now accused of “active corruption”, which generally involves offering money or other promises in exchange for violating a rule.

The official said the new preliminary charges focus on suspicions that Diack bribed Gabriel Dollé, the IAAF’s former anti-doping chief who is also under investigation, to delay reporting violations by Russian athletes.

The prosecutor’s office official cannot be publicly named during an ongoing investigation.

The preliminary charges allow magistrates more time to investigate before deciding whether to file formal charges and send a case to trial. Diack, an 82-year-old former long jumper, is free on bail pending further investigation but barred from leaving France.

The latest charges are part of a multi-pronged investigation into suspected wrongdoing at the IAAF that has expanded rapidly in recent months.

Russia’s track and field federation was suspended by the IAAF after a World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission found evidence of systemic doping and cover-ups.

Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, a former IAAF marketing consultant also targeted by the French corruption probe, told the BBC that his father is in “good spirits” despite the investigation.

“Suddenly they are just going to destroy all he’s built over the last 16 years and all the 39 years he’s spent in the IAAF, so I find it very sad and I could not recognise certain acts or certain declarations made by certain people,” he was quoted as saying from Senegal.

Papa Diack also said he “totally rejects” accusations he had any role in blackmailing athletes or seeking money from Qatar ahead of its unsuccessful bid to host the 2017 world championships.

Reports late on Monday alleged that another senior IAAF official, Nick Davies, tried to delay public identification of alleged Russian drug cheats ahead of the 2013 world championships in Moscow.

Davies, formerly director of communications at the IAAF and now deputy general secretary and close associate of IAAF president Sebastian Coe, strongly denied any wrongdoing.