The former president of the Fédération Internationale des Associations d’Athlétisme (IAAF), Lamine Diack, set foot on Senegalese soil on Monday, May 10, 2021, at about 20H40mn at Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD) aboard Air France. As he wished, a sober welcome was reserved for him. At the age of 87, the former president of Jaraaf is back in Senegal after six months of absence since his arrest by the French justice in November 2015.
Lamine Diack returned to Senegal after receiving a FCFA 327 million deposit from Jaraaf, a Senegalese football club of which he was president in the 1970s and 2000s. Brothers and sisters, friends and close relatives, were delighted to see the former leader of world athletics. In a blue suit with a hat on her head and a smile of satisfaction, Lamine Diack moved around with a cane accompanied by members of her family. He planned to go and pray at his parents’ grave before visiting his older brother, a centenary, Alioune Diack.
Lamine Diack has been under house arrest since November 2015 in France. He was sentenced by the French justice to four years in prison, including two farms, on 20 September 2020, for his “involvement in a corruption network intended to hide doping cases in Russia”.
On 30 December, the former president of the IAAF (1999-2015) had benefited from a lifting of the measure prohibiting him from leaving French territory, against the payment of a 500,000 euro guarantee, or just over 327 million CFA francs. The Jaraaf of Dakar decided to pay this deposit at an extraordinary general meeting held in Dakar on 18 April. Lamine Diack will be able to celebrate Koreity (end of Ramadan) with her family.
