Four years in jail requisition for former athletics boss Diack 'inhumane', lawyer says
VIDEO SHOWS: FORMER INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATHLETICS FEDERATION HEAD, LAMINE DIACK, ON LAST DAY OF TRIAL / LAWYER FOR DIACK SAYING PROSECUTOR REQUISITION "INHUMANE", THAT ACCUSATIONS OF CORRUPTION "ABSURD" / FILE OF DIACK AS HEAD OF WORLD ATHLETICS GOVERNING BODY
RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT
SHOWS:
PARIS, FRANCE (JUNE 18, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
1. VARIOUS OF FORMER INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATHLETICS FEDERATION HEAD, LAMINE DIACK, TALKING OUTSIDE COURTROOM
2. LAWYER OF LAMINE DIACK, SIMON NDIAYE, WALKING OUT OF COURTROOM
3. OTHER LAWYER FOR LAMINE DIACK, WILLIAM BOURDON, PUTTING GOWN ON
4. (SOUNDBITE) (French) LAWYER OF LAMINE DIACK, WILLIAM BOURDON, SAYING:
"We find those requisitions inhumane. Four years in jail for an 87 year-old man, who is ill, is inhumane, it's of great cruelty. He's an elderly man which faces a sentence given out for the worst crimes, for murders."
5. LAWYER WORKING ON COMPUTER
6. (SOUNDBITE) (French) LAWYER OF LAMINE DIACK, WILLIAM BOURDON, SAYING:
"We will demonstrate in front of the judges that the prosecutors based their requisitions in a very impressionist way, by distorting the facts, by piling up of certain number of events in order to create this kind of corruptive realm, which would have been orchestrated by the beneficiaries, father and son. It's absurd."
7. CORRIDOR WITH JOURNALISTS AND LAWYERS
8. JUSTICE SYMBOL ON SCREEN, DOOR CLOSING
DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA (FILE - AUGUST 26, 2011) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
9. THEN IAAF PRESIDENT DIACK AND IOC PRESIDENT, JACQUES ROGGE, TOGETHER AT NEWS CONFERENCE
DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA (FILE - AUGUST 24, 2011) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
10. OFFICIALS AT NEWS CONFERENCE FOLLOWING RE-ELECTION OF DIACK AS IAAF PRESIDENT
BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - AUGUST 19, 2015) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
11. DIACK WITH PRESIDENT OF IAAF, SEBASTIAN COE, WALKING IN FOR NEWS CONFERENCE AND TAKING SEATS WITH OTHER IAAF OFFICIALS
12. NEWS CONFERENCE WITH DIACK AND COE
DAKAR, SENEGAL (FILE - SEPTEMBER 8, 2017) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
13. VARIOUS OF DIACK'S SON, PAPA MASSATA, DURING INTERVIEW
STORY: The former head of athletics' governing body, Lamine Diack, attended the last day of hearings in Paris on Thursday (June 18) in a trial for corruption and money laundering linked to a Russian doping scandal.
Public prosecutors on Wednesday (June 17) sought a four-year jail sentence for Diack, telling the three judges that Diack and his son, Papa Massata Diack, were at the heart of a scheme that solicited bribes worth millions of euros from Russian athletes to cover up failed doping tests and allow them to continue competing.
The prosecutors also said Diack obtained $1.5 million of Russian funds while negotiating sponsorship and television rights to help finance Macky Sall's campaign for the 2012 Senegal presidential election in exchange for slowing anti-doping procedures.
William Bourdon, one of Diack's lawyers, said that the four-year sentence was "of great cruelty" and that the prosecution had distorted the facts.
The maximum sentence the prosecution could have sought was 10 years.
In his testimony, Diack, 87, said he had not sought to protect the athletes, some of whom later participated in the London 2012 Olympics, but to ensure the cases did not come to public attention at once and cause a scandal.
The finances of World Athletics, then called the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were at the time in bad shape, and slowing the doping cases helped save a sponsorship deal with Russian bank VTB, Diack said.
The prosecutor said Diack became used to "living like an emperor."
The prosecution sought a five-year prison sentence for Papa Massata Diack, who fled France for his native Senegal after the French investigation began and was tried in absentia.
(Production: Antony Paone, Lucien Libert)
