The Court of Cassation partially annulled on Wednesday November 6 the conviction of Papa Massata Diack, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for corruption and complicity in corruption in the case of doping of Russian athletes in 2011.
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The Court therefore referred the casea scandal which shook the world of sport, before 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.
Tried again by the Paris Court of Appeal
The 58-year-old Senegalese has his sentences canceled and will be retried by the Paris Court of Appeal, ordered the Court of Cassation. 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 500,000 euros in fine 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 euros from sponsorship contracts, via a set-up of shell companies.
The affair had also precipitated the fall of his father, the former boss of world athletics Lamine Diackand four other protagonists. Sentenced to four years in prison at first instance in 2020, Diack senior died in 2021 and the proceedings against him ended, as did those targeting the Frenchman Gabriel Dollé, former head of anti-doping at the IAAF, also deceased . Two Russian sports officials at the material time, Valentin Balakhnitchev and Alexeï Melnikov, did not appeal. The sixth protagonist, Habib Cissé, was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended on appeal, but this former personal advisor to Lamine Diack appealed to “PMD” and will also be retried.
The affair was revealed by the agent of Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova, who had paid 450,000 euros to disappear from the list. Finally suspended in 2014, she requested a refund and received 300,000 euros from an account in Singapore which was traced back to “PMD”.