Paris (AFP)
It was necessary to avoid "a scandal" to save the sponsors of athletics: the former boss of anti-doping at the international federation (IAAF), the Frenchman Gabriel Dollé, tried to explain his "arrangements" with the rules on Monday , first day of trial in Paris for corruption on the background of doping in Russia.
Sent to court for passive bribery, in this case 190,000 euros in alleged bribes received in 2013 and 2014, Gabriel Dollé, 78, wanted to minimize his liability, claiming to have sought a compromise between "the best interest "of the IAAF and the sidelining of doped Russian athletes.
In late 2011-early 2012, when the biological passport, a new tool in the anti-doping arsenal, began to take effect, suspicion about Russia increased and a list of 23 athletes was drawn up.
Former IAAF President Lamine Diack, the main defendant at the trial, "asked me to consider" the "very critical financial situation (of the IAAF), and that at that time with the list (. ..) it would cause a scandal, (which) would influence the course of negotiations with the sponsors and cause them to collapse, "said Gabriel Dollé.
It was therefore "not to cause a scandal," he continued, in a slightly quavering and slightly hoarse voice, assuring that he never renounced the sanctions.
According to him, this "reasoned management" implied not to sanction officially and publicly the athletes but to envisage an "unofficial suspension", discreet, "which was not entirely that of the regulations".
However, as the president of the tribunal, Marie-Rose Hunault pointed out to him, several of the Russian athletes were able to participate in the 2012 Olympics and some were medalists. Gabriel Dollé judges that he was then "betrayed" but appeared in difficulty, seeking to justify why he had not acted more firmly.
The trial, in which six defendants appear, three of whom are absent, runs until June 18.
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