IAAF cancels awards ceremony after Lamine Diack investigation opens

Dolle and Cisse face only the corruption charge.

According to French news channel iTELE, the investigation is focused on suspicions that payments were made in return for not revealing the doping of Russian athletes.

The suspensions have been announced by the Russian athletics federation and they come a day after French police announced an investigation into the former IAAF president, Lamine Diack, who is suspected of receiving €1 million to cover up doping offences by Russian athletes. “Parents have got to know that they are encouraging their children to go into a sport where they will not be harmed”, Coe said.

WADA has been investigating serious doping allegations within athletics since January and information collected by its Independent Commission during this time has led to the latest developments in Monaco.

The Senegalese born Diack stepped down in August this year from his position as President after serving for almost 16 years. He was held for questioning on Sunday together with his legal adviser Habib Cisse, who was also placed under formal inquiry on Tuesday.

The French investigation followed a complaint by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which has scheduled a news conference for Monday to address certain findings of its own investigation.

“The IAAF is fully cooperating with all investigations as it has been from the beginning of the process, ” it said.

Diack is now an honorary IOC member after serving on the committee for 15 years until 2014.

In the AP interview Houlette said Papa Massata Diack, who worked as a consultant contracted to the IAAF’s longstanding marketing partner Dentsu, is also thought to have played a “very active” role in the alleged scheme.

The others charged were Valentin Balakhnichev, former president of the All-Russia Athletic Federation and a former IAAF treasurer, Alexei Melnikov, ex-Russian coach for long-distance walkers and runners, and Gabriel Dolle, former director of the IAAF’s Anti-Doping Department.

The IAAF Ethics Commission statement said an unnamed fifth person is also under investigation in their probe. The old management isn’t working there anymore. “Understand that there are a lot of criminal cases going on in the world right now and those are unclear cases”.

Reuters was not immediately able to reach Diack himself for comment.

“Given the cloud that hangs over our association this is clearly not the time for the global athletics family to be gathering in celebration of our sport”, IAAF president Sebastian Coe said in a statement.

“He answered any questions they wanted”, the source said.