Dakar (AFP)

Papa Massata Diack, son of the former boss of world athletics Lamine Diack, vituperated Monday in Dakar against his conviction in France for his alleged involvement in a corruption network doomed to hide doping cases in Russia.

Papa Massata Diack, who headed marketing at the IAAF, was sentenced on September 16 in Paris to five years and a million euros fine in a trial in which he was one of the most absent among the six defendants .

The court upheld the arrest warrant against him.

Lamine Diack, present for his part, was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which was closed, and a fine of 500,000 euros.

Papa Massata Diack, who headed the marketing of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), protested in front of the press against a "prosecution" and an "announced conviction", proclaiming his innocence of all the alleged facts and suspecting that he and his father were the victims of racism.

"What we saw in Paris is a denial of justice, it's a farce," explained the one who lives in Senegal and has always refused to appear before French magistrates.

He defended himself for attempting to extort money from athletes accused of doping, for trying to use doping suspicions in negotiations of commercial contracts or for improperly receiving money which should have fallen to the IAAF.

"It is said Massata embezzled sums, but these sums were the subject of contracts", he declared in a monologue of nearly an hour.

"At no time have the integrity or the finances of the IAAF been compromised. Papa Massata Diack has never invoiced on behalf of the IAAF," he insisted.

He reacted strongly to the ten-year ban on all activity in the field of sport, and not only in athletics.

"Do they have universal jurisdiction? Can they do whatever they want?" He asked.

"I'm no longer afraid to say that there is racism in this story, there is a desire to lecture," he added without it being clear whether he was attacking to judges, IAAF executives or its detractors in general.

He felt that his income and expenses had been instrumentalized against him and his father.

“I have the impression that Africans, you can make money, but you don't have to spend it,” he said, “if it's an Englishman, or an American or a Frenchman who had made that money, they would never have mentioned it. "

Senegal refused to extradite Mr. Diack as demanded by French justice.

Senegalese justice, on the other hand, conducts its own investigations and he is indicted under equivalent counts and placed under judicial control.

© 2020 AFP