Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 08:24 am
Senegal and the sporting world has been shaken after the former head of the world athletics body, Lamine Diack, was found guilty of corruption by a Paris court.
Residents in Dakar alleged racism and said Wednesday’s verdict by a Paris court was unjust.
“As a Senegalese, I think it was an injustice to condemn him.
African people are tired because if Lamine Diack was a white person, he would not be sued, arrested,” said Cheriphe Toure.
“It is not normal, he is a Senegalese, he is about 80 years old and they want to put him in prison, he is tired.
The trial (against Diack) is not a real trial, it’s just politics.” Lamine, an 87-year-old Senegalese, was charged for his role in a scheme that allowed Russian athletes to pay bribes to keep competing when they should have been suspended for doping after they paid bribes.
Prosecutors said Diack solicited $5.5 million in bribes and paid off other officials at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to help with the cover-up.
The court handed Diack a four-year prison sentence, two years of which are suspended and a fine of $590,000.
He was also ordered to pay €5 million in damages to World Athletics (formerly IAAF) with his son and co-accused, Papa Massata Diack.
From 1999-2015 Diack was the head of the IAAF and was influential in the world of Olympic sports. Diack’s lawyers said they would appeal the verdict.
“I think if the law is valid in France, it will be overturned because it’s really unfair,” Abdoulaye Diagne, Coordinator of the support committee for Lamine Diack.
(AFP)
Gilbert Machokoto, a former teacher, said that setting up a business in the late 1980s, shortlyafter Zimbabwe's independence, was ‘like…
Following elections in which the party that had ruled the diamond-rich nation for almost 60years suffered a historic setback. Botswana's…
A lightning strike at a refugee camp in Uganda kills 14 people including children with 34 othershospitalized. The incident happened…
From TV hopeful to red carpet royalty, Kuhle Adams' journey is a remarkable story of talentand perseverance. Beginning as an…
A new dawn in African football dawns as Jackline Juma is set to become the firstwoman to coach a men’s…
Last Friday Kithure Kindiki was again inaugurated as Kenya's new deputy president followinglegal challenges by his predecessor.The man who Kindiki…
This website uses cookies.