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Former controversial world athletics chief Lamine Diack who covered up Russian bribe scandal dies, aged 88

  • Diack was president of the IAAF, now World Athletics, from 1999 to 2015 after holding several political positions in Senegal
  • He was sentenced to four years in prison for covering up the payment of bribes by Russian athletes involved in doping cases

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Lamine Diack, the controversial former president of the International Athletics Federation, has died, his family said Friday. He was 88. Photo: AP Photo/Kin Cheung

Lamine Diack, the controversial former president of world athletics, has died, his family said Friday. He was 88.

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“Yes, I confirm. My uncle Lamine Diack passed away Thursday to Friday night,” Awa Diack, niece of the former world athletics boss, said.

Diack was president of the IAAF, now World Athletics, from 1999 to 2015 after holding several political positions in Senegal.

Diack was sentenced to four years in prison for covering up the payment of bribes by Russian athletes involved in doping cases and the financing by Russia of political campaigns in Senegal.

In May, Diack returned home to Senegal from France, where he had been under house arrest, after a local soccer club paid a bond of just over $600,000 to allow him to leave.

Lamine Diack arrives at the Paris courthouse, on January 13, 2020. Photo: AP Photo/Thibault Camus
Lamine Diack arrives at the Paris courthouse, on January 13, 2020. Photo: AP Photo/Thibault Camus

Diack was convicted in Paris in September 2020 on multiple charges of corruption during his tenure, some of it related to the Russian doping scandal.

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