The interrogation of Habib Cisse, one of the defendants, dragged on for so long on Thursday that Lamine Diack almost fell asleep on his bench. Considerate, the president is ready to postpone the passage to the bar the ex-boss of the international athletics federation (IAAF), aged 87, the following day. Elegant in his traditional white outfit, the Senegalese suddenly regains form. Before the 32nd Chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, which judges him for alleged acts of corruption, the man, heard on Thursday evening and Friday, finds his bagou. "I have ruled Africa for 30 years," he dares. "Do you mean the African Federation?" ", Corrects the president.
Director of another time, Lamine Diack sometimes gets lost but likes to detail his meetings with the king of Spain "who had asked to see me", with Vladimir Poutine or with the former president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, "who called me in his office" but with whom he ended up getting angry - "because he wanted to sell the Dakar athletics stadium to the Chinese".
"I worried about the future of the federation"
Is that there are Lamine Diack caps! "National technical director of the Senegal football team, president of the Senegalese Olympic committee, member of the international committee, first vice-president of the National Assembly of Senegal, first deputy to the Mayor of Dakar", then patron of a powerful International Federation athletics, between 1999 and 2015. "I was born rue du Général-Mangin, the one between the prison and the stadium, I chose the stadium", says the former long jumper, triggering smiles in the room. The man is now facing a 10-year prison sentence.
With in particular his son Papa Massata Diack - currently on the run in Senegal - the former great manitou of world athletics, is suspected of having delayed the sanctioning procedures of 23 Russian athletes accused of doping, in exchange for large sums of money. money (3.45 million euros). “Who made the decision to spread the sanctions over time? Asks the president. "It's me," says Lamine Diack. There is no problem! "When we had the Russian cases, the international federation was going through a difficult period, it was threatened with bankruptcy. I worried about his future, ”he explains.
Sponsorship contracts with different Russian companies
In 2011, anomalies appear in the blood data of 23 Russian athletes. Lamine Diack then had the idea "to stagger the sanctions to avoid a scandal that would have jeopardized the IAAF and discussions with sponsors". Habib Cisse, legal adviser to President Diack, is responsible for transmitting - with more or less speed - the letters of notification to the Russians.
As the months went by, the suspected doping athletes continued to participate in international competitions, skewing the results in the process. Meanwhile, the IAAF extends its sponsorship contract with VTB… a Russian bank (for 30 million euros), signs a TV rights agreement with… Russian television (20 million euros).
Valentin Balakhnichev, the former president of the Russian athletics federation, absent from his trial, admitted during the investigation to have paid € 1.5 million to help Diack finance the presidential campaign in Senegal. A pact which would have been sealed at the end of 2011 during a trip to Moscow, where the Senegalese had been decorated by the Russian president of the time Dmitri Medvedev. Diack barely concedes that he mentioned the sum of € 1.5 million during a dinner but claims to have "claimed nothing". Also annoying is the note found signed by Papa Massata Diack and these testimonies which would tend to prove that some of the 23 athletes were racketeered. "I was overwhelmed when the investigators told me that," says Diack. "It's not correct what my son did, he behaved like a thug. "
Friendly gestures
Lamine Diack admits having given two envelopes in 2014 (50,000 euros and 40,000 euros in cash) to Doctor Dollé, former head of the anti-doping department at the IAAF, also present on the dock. "Was it to thank him for his collaboration in the reasoned management of doping cases," asked the president. "I never would have dared," Diack says. Dollé was retiring and he told me he had to get married… ”
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The former boss of the IAAF has decidedly funny methods. At the helm, he recounts in a relaxed manner, that in 1993, after the fire of his house in Dakar, he received money from the then boss of ISL, the company which managed the rights of the IAAF. "And you have never been worried about that?" »Wonders the president. “I didn't know the money came from his company. It was a friendly gesture… ”One more.