Paris (AFP)

"Here is who I am". He is tried in Paris in a resounding case of international corruption on a background of Russian doping, but at 87 years old, the former boss of world athletics, the Senegalese Lamine Diack, is above all talkative so that we retain a balance sheet flattering: that of having "universalized" his sport.

On the second day of his trial, he only spoke for half an hour at the end of the afternoon, without addressing the substance of the case yet. But Lamine Diack, dressed in an elegant white boubou that contrasted with the tie suits of his co-defendants, immediately woke up the audience, after a whole day devoted to the interrogation, sometimes technical and arid, of his former legal advisor Habib Cissé.

With a rapid flow, not always intelligible, the native of Dakar first told how the sport had pulled him up, him the "rickety" teenager mocked by one of his brothers, convinced that he would never get there.

- rambling -

Lamine Diack was a high level sportsman, long jumper in the jersey of the French team - at the time Senegal was not yet independent - then a football player, before entering the cenacles federations. He hardly stops talking, when the president of the 32nd correctional chamber of the court, Rose-Marie Hunault, interrupts him: "What year is it here?". "July 1976", he replies.

Mayor of Dakar (1978-79), member of parliament, in 1999 he eventually became the first non-European president of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), succeeding the Italian Primo Nebiolo.

"My role was to universalize athletics (...) that's who I am!", He adds, after a sometimes disjointed story.

But it is not on his balance sheet that Lamine Diack must be judged, during this trial scheduled until June 18. The former president of the IAAF, whose interrogation on the facts should start Thursday, risks up to ten years in prison for active and passive corruption, money laundering and breach of trust, for having notably allowed to delay disciplinary procedures against Russian athletes suspected of blood doping from the end of 2011.

- "total protection" -

During the investigation, he himself acknowledged that the sanctions had been staggered so as not to overwhelm the image of Russia before the 2013 Worlds in Moscow, while the IAAF was negotiating the renewal of sponsorship contracts with the Bank of 'VTB state and RTR chain.

A version confirmed Monday by the former Mr. Antidopage of the IAAF, Gabriel Dollé, tried for passive corruption, for which it was necessary to avoid "a scandal".

While he was decorated at the Kremlin at the end of 2011, Lamine Diack also admitted during the investigation that he had obtained Russian funds, 1.5 million dollars, to campaign for the presidential election of Senegal in 2012 against the outgoing Abdoulaye Wade, finally defeated by Macky Sall. By telling the story of his life, he quickly returned to his enmity with Wade, accusing him of wanting to sell off a stadium in Dakar so that Chinese investors could make "turns".

But the facts go beyond a simple deal against the backdrop of sponsors and political campaigns.

The examining magistrates also dismissed some of the six defendants, including Lamine Diack, for the racket of Russian athletes, forced to pay several hundred thousand euros to blackmailers to be able to benefit from "total protection" vis -with respect to anti-doping. On Wednesday, the court notably questioned Lamine Diack's former adviser, Habib Cissé, on a note found at his home which details amounts per athlete.

Among the key players in the case is one of Lamine Diack's sons, Papa Massata, the former IAAF marketing advisor. The latter, targeted by an international arrest warrant, remained in Dakar and must be tried in his absence, like two Russians, the former national trainer of long-distance races Alexei Melnikov, and the former president of the Russian federation of athletics, Valentin Balakhnitchev.

© 2020 AFP