Lamine Diack, the disgraced former president of the IAAF, now World Athletics, returned to his native Senegal on Monday after a bond of €500,000 was paid to French authorities allowing him to leave the European country.
The bond was paid by Jaraaf, a Senegalese club which Diack was president of in the 1970s and in the late 1990s and 2000s, according to a club official and Diack’s lawyer.
“This is the least we can do for Lamine Diack, who is a founding member of our club,” Youssou Dial, vice president in charge of finance at Jaraaf de Dakar, told the Associated Press.
“Mr. Diack has given this club a lot,” Dial said adding that the club had to sell off some of its properties to realize its goal.
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Diack landed in the Senegalese capital Dakar late on Monday and did not make any comments as he made his way with the aid of a walking stick and help from a family member.
Last September, Diack was found guilty of corruption for covering up Russian doping cases in exchange for bribes and sentenced to four years in prison – two of which were suspended – and fined €500,000.
The 87-year-old was also found guilty of taking bribes from Russian athletes to financially help Macky Sall’s successful Senegalese presidential election campaign in 2012.
However, French justice authorities said Diack, who had been under house arrest in France since 2015, was unlikely to spend any time in jail due to his advanced age.
Five other senior figures in the sport, among them Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, were also handed jail sentences for their part in the scandal.
Papa Massata Diack lives in Senegal, which refused to extradite him to France for the trial. Both men have appealed their convictions.
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