IOC investigates the president of international athletics for corruption
From the IAAF World Championships in Berlin 2009. Photo: Verleihnix/Flickr
09.11.2011
By Play the GameInvestigative journalist Andrew Jennings details the allegations against Diack in articles in the British newspaper, the Independent and on his own website. According to a list obtained by Jennings and the BBC's Panorama programme, Diack allegedly received 30,000 US dollars in cash in 1993 in two separate payments, and later the same year he received a further 30,000 French francs.
The IOC has been investigating the allegations against Diack for ten months, just it has been investigating similar allegations against two other IOC members, FIFA vice-president Issa Hayatou from Cameroun and former FIFA president, Joao Havelange from Brazil.
The IOC's executive board will be presented with a report on the case from its Ethics Commission in the beginning of December, and IOC President Jacques Rogge has told reporters that he does not know what the report will contain.
"It is strictly confidential. The report will not necessarily propose decisions. It might be information only. I don't know.We will see."
Diack denies the allegations against him. When Jennings confronted him earlier this year and asked on film about the allegations, Diack declined to comment and ran off. Later in an interview with the website Insidethegames, Mr Diack said he had answered all the IOC's questions and had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Mr Diack, from Senegal, was quoted as saying: "I answered to the ethics commission and I had no more reaction from them," he said. "That put an end to that."
In Britain, the question of whether it is possible to bribe Diack or not has become important as London is bidding to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships. London is up against Doha, capital of Qatar, who won the rights to host the 2022 Football World Cup amid allegations that they had bribed FIFA officals.
The decision on who will host the 2017 World Athletics Championships will be taken in Monaco later this week.
Read more:
Transparencyinsport.org: Will bribes sink London bid?
The Independent: Bribery probe into athletics chief