World athletics governing body IAAF announced on Friday that it was provisionally suspending its deputy director Nick Davies over charges that he contrived to hide news of positive Russian drugs tests in 2013.
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Nick Davies, Jane Boulter-Davies and Pierre-Yves Garnier have been provisionally suspended for 180 days as of Friday, the organisation confirmed, following an ethics investigation. “These particular facts were made public in December 2015 and relate to allegations of a breach of the IAAF Code of Ethics”, the IAAF said in a statement.
“The orders for provisional suspension have been imposed in the interests of the integrity of the sport but do not prejudge the outcome of the investigations which are now to follow, ” the board said.
The case involves a 2013 email between between former IAAF President Lamine Diack and his son, Papa Massata Diack, who also previously worked for the federation.
Davies was reported to have sent an email to Papa Massata Diack in 2013 asking what “Russian “skeleton” we have still in the cupboard regarding doping”, and suggesting using the marketing company chaired by Coe – then an IAAF vice president – to lead an “unofficial PR campaign” to “avoid global media scandals” related to the Moscow championships.
Davies is furthermore suspected of having “misled an IAAF Ethics Board investigator in respect of the matter identified above”.
Education official Boulter-Davies and medical manager Garnier have also been suspended, with Boulter-Davies accused of misleading investigators and Garnier alleged to have received an undisclosed payment.
The message sent to Papa Massata Diack a month before the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow outlined a plan to delay naming Russian drugs cheats.
The IAAF Ethics Commission have deciphered from a report in the Le Monde newspaper that Balakhnichev had asked Papa Massata Diack to “get involved and give money to various people to keep them quiet and so that they would not object”.
The IAAF welcomed the provisional suspensions announced by the ethics panel.
Further details on the prima facie cases can be found here. Boulter-Davies and Garnier face similar allegations. It said Garnier allegedly received cash at the direction of Lamine Diack.
He said he had referred to the IAAF Ethics Board all of his 2013 emails to Papa Massata Diack, his statements and the circumstances of the emails.
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Next week, IAAF officials will meet to decide the fate of Russia’s track and field federation in relation to the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics.
