Paris (AFP)

The former boss of world athletics, Lamine Diack, sentenced in Paris in a corruption case around doping in Russia, will return to Senegal after having paid a deposit of 500,000 euros to the French justice, we learned Monday from corroborating sources.

At 87, Lamine Diack, who appealed against this conviction, was held in France because of his indictment in a second case, relating to suspicion of buying votes in the attribution of the Olympic Games.

In this second case, the former president of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF, 1999-2015) had his passport confiscated as part of a judicial review imposed by the investigating judges.

But the judge in charge of the investigations recently lifted his ban on leaving the territory, subject to the former champion paying a deposit of 500,000 euros corresponding to the fine incurred, and on the condition that he continues to respond to court summons, according to the order consulted by AFP, confirming information from the Senegalese press.

"He paid the 500,000 euros last week", told AFP one of his lawyers, Mr. Simon Ndiaye, adding that Mr. Diack had "still administrative formalities to complete" before returning to Senegal.

A famous football club, the Dakar Jaraaf (elite championship), has sold part of its land assets to pay the deposit, its president Cheikh Seck told AFP on Monday.

"We sold half of Kër Jaraaf (the club's headquarters, editor's note) which is 5,700 square meters. Part of the money was used to pay the deposit. The other part was used to settle the club's liabilities and will be used also to finance "sports and real estate investments," Seck said.

Lamine Diack was twice president of Jaraaf, in the 1970s and 2000s.

A member of his family told AFP that he should return to Dakar "by Friday".

The Senegalese was sentenced on September 16, 2020 in Paris to four years in prison, two of which were closed, and a fine of 500,000 euros for corruption and breach of trust, in particular for having hidden doping cases in Russia or delaying sanctions against Russian athletes doped, in exchange for funding and to promote sponsorship and dissemination negotiations with Russia.

His appeal trial has not yet been set.

He has also been indicted since March 27, 2019, still for corruption, within the framework of the attributions of the Olympics-2016 in Rio and 2020 in Tokyo, but also in the processes of attribution of the World Athletics Championships in Beijing in 2015. , then the 2017 and 2019 Worlds, for which Qatar was a candidate.

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