The son of former IAAF president lamine Diack and two Russian officials were banned from track and field for life on Thursday after an investigation into blackmail, bribery, extortion and doping cover-ups.
A fourth official, former IAAF anti-doping director Gabriel Dolle, received a five-year ban from the ethics commission of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Banned for life were Papa Massata Diack, who worked as an IAAF marketing consultant; former Russian athletics federation head Valentin Balakhnichev, who was also honorary treasurer of the IAAF; and Alexei Melnikov, former head coach of Russia’s race-walking and long-distance running programs.
The sanctions centered on the case of Russian marathoner liliya Shobukhova, who was allegedly extorted out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid a doping ban before the 2012 london Olympics.
In addition, Papa Massata Diack and Balakhnichev were fined $25,000 each, and Melnikov was fined $15,000. Dolle was banned for five years because “his sins were those of omission, not commission,” the IAAF panel said. The verdicts can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The investigation followed a report by German broadcaster ARD in December 2014 alleging that Shobukhova paid 450,000 euros ($520,000) to Russian officials who threatened her with a doping ban before the london Games. When Shobukhova was initially banned for two years in 2014, her husband reportedly received a 300,000 euro ($345,000) refund payment linked to Balakhnichev.
Balakhnichev called his ban an “unbalanced decision” and claimed it was timed deliberately on Orthodox Christmas.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the verdict was “expected” and “there’s no sense in appealing it.”
In a statement, the IAAF said it was “angered” that the officials sanctioned by the ethics panel “conspired to extort what were in substance bribes from the athlete by acts of blackmail.”