PARIS: Lamine Diack, the disgraced former head of world athletics’ governing body, has died at home in Senegal, aged 88.

Diack, who was convicted of corruption last year, was president of World Athletics (formerly the International Association of Athletics Federations, IAAF) from 1999 to 2015.

In September 2020, he was found guilty of corruption and money-laundering, linked to the Russian doping scandal.

A French court sentenced him to four years in prison, two of them suspended.

He was never jailed and allowed to return to Senegal, where he remained under house arrest and was later released on bail.

Papa Massata Diack, his son who was charged but never faced a French court, said: “He died at home of a natural death.”

Diack’s lawyers had previously said he was in poor health and would die if sent to prison.

Despite his conviction he still enjoyed support in Senegal with Cheikh Seck, the owner of Senegalese football club Jaraaf, paying a 500,000 euro ($565,000 or £425,000 bond earlier this year that allowed Diack to return home.

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