Papa Massata Diack will not be extradited to France, despite Interpol having issued a “red notice” for his arrest, Senegal’s Prime Minister has revealed.
He is wanted by French prosecutors for alleged corruption and money laundering in connection with the current investigation into the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Papa Diack was handed a life ban from athletics earlier this month after the independent IAAF Ethics Commission found him guilty of accepting money as part of a blackmail plot to cover up doping cases involving Russian athletes.
His father, former IAAF President Lamine Diack, was detained in France in November and is unable to leave the country because he has had to surrender his passport.
Papa Diack will remain out of the hands of the French authorities, however, as long as he remains in his home country.
“We will not extradite a Senegalese,” Prime Minister Mahammad Boun Abdallah Dionne told Senegal’s Parliament.
“Those are the instructions the President [Macky Sall] gave the Government.
“But that does not mean he has the right to impunity.”
A report by the independent IAAF Ethics Commission panel claimed Papa Diack, along with the then-President of the All-Russia Athletics Federation Valentin Balakhnichev and coach Alexei Melnikov, conspired to “blackmail” Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova to cover up her doping violations by her paying them “bribes” of about £435,000 ($634,000/€583,000).
Papa Diack, employed by his father as a marketing consultant for the IAAF, has denied he was involved in anything illegal.
He has refused to cooperate with the French authorities, however.
“There was no extortion of funds from any athlete,” Papa Diack told the BBC last month.
- By Duncan Mackay : this article was republished with permission from the original publisher Inside the Games www.insidethegames.biz