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Too rich to bribe: Diack junior denies Russian doping graft

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AFP Paris
Last Updated : Feb 14 2020 | 8:26 PM IST

Papa Massata Diack, the son of former world athletics supremo Lamine Diack, has denied corruption linked to the Russian doping scandal, saying he is too rich to bribe.

Diack has been indicted by French prosecutors for allegedly accepting millions of dollars along with his father, Lamine Diack, in return for covering up positive Russian doping tests.

Diack junior is a former marketing consultant for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now renamed World Athletics, which was run by his father from 1999 to 2015.

He was due to go on trial in Paris from mid-January along with his father but has refused to cooperate with French authorities and remains in Senegal.

Despite two international arrest warrants issued by France, the Senegalese authorities have said they will not extradite Diack junior.

In testimony to an investigating magistrate in Senegal in November, seen by AFP, Papa Massata Diack said he was too wealthy to need to take bribes and denied covering up positive Russian doping tests from 2011.

"In all the years I worked with the IAAF and Dentsu-AMS (the IAAF marketing rights holders), I earned around 10 millions dollars (nine million euros) from sponsoring contracts and TV rights," he testified.

"So I had no need to ask athletes to pay money for doping cases."
- Unauthorised payments - =========================

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First Published: Feb 14 2020 | 8:26 PM IST

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