Senegal denies paying ex-athletics chief's legal fees
Former head of global athletics Lamine Diack is dead.
What you need to know:
- A French court in September found him guilty of corruption in covering up Russian doping cases and sentenced him to four years in prison.
- The 87-year-old Diack led the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now renamed World Athletics, from 1999 to 2015.
Dakar
Senegal's government on Friday denied covering legal costs for the former head of global athletics, Lamine Diack, who was convicted of corruption by a French court.
Government spokesman Oumar Gueye told a news conference in the West African country's capital Dakar that press reports suggesting Senegalese authorities had defrayed legal fees were "unfounded".
"There has been no payment of bail or anything else for the release of our fellow citizen Lamine Diack," he said.
The 87-year-old Diack led the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now renamed World Athletics, from 1999 to 2015.
A French court in September found him guilty of corruption in covering up Russian doping cases and sentenced him to four years in prison, of which two years were suspended, and fined him 500,000 euros ($600,000). Diack has appealed.
The former athletics boss returned to Senegal from France this month after a judge lifted a travel ban related to a second case involving suspected Olympic vote-buying, in exchanging for paying a bond.
