LORD Coe has been accused of not sharing information relevant to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee’s inquiry into doping by its chairman.
Coe told the committee in December 2015 he was “not aware” of specific allegations of corruption related to the Russian doping scandal.
The committee yesterday published an email from IAAF president Coe to IAAF ethics board chairman Michael Beloff QC, sent in August 2014, in which Coe states he had received “copied documentation of serious allegations” made by Russian athlete Liliya Shobukhova.
A four-page letter written to CMS select committee chairman Damian Collins by Coe last week, detailing his recollection of events and why there is “no discrepancy” in what he told the panel in 2015, was also published on Tuesday by the committee.
Colllins, speaking to the BBC, said: “Whatever excuse he gives, it is clear that Lord Coe decided not to share with the committee information that was relevant to our inquiry on doping in sport.”
Last month former London Marathon director Dave Bedford told the committee he had called, emailed and texted Coe in August 2014 to tell him about senior IAAF officials extorting 450,000 euros from Russian long-distance runner Shobukhova to cover up her doping.
One MP on the panel, Nigel Huddleston, said this “undermined” Coe’s account, which was he “did not know about the specific allegations about Russian doping and corruption” until German reporter Hajo Seppelt’s documentary about the scandal on December 3, 2014, four months after Bedford’s warning.
In regards to Bedford’s email, Coe said he simply forwarded it, unread, to Beloff.
Collins asked Coe to come back to parliament to clear up the matter but the former London 2012 chief responded to say he was not sure what further assistance he could give, and forwarded a screenshot of an email he sent to Beloff forwarding Bedford’s message.
But that email was clearly not the first in the exchange between Coe and Beloff and Collins wrote back asking for any earlier emails between the pair. Coe has now complied with that request.
In the email to Beloff, which Coe said he dictated to a secretary from a family holiday in Switzerland, the Conservative peer said: “I have in the last couple of days received copied documentation of serious allegations being made by and on behalf of the Russian female athlete Shobukhova from David Bedford.
“I have spoken to David today on the phone and he advises me that he has shared this information with you. Should I forward this documentation to you? The purpose of this note is of course to advise you that I have now been made aware of the allegations.”
Beloff, who was also on holiday, responds two days later to say Coe should forward it to him.
In his letter to Collins, Coe explains that his December 2015 comment about not knowing “the specific allegations” was an answer to the first part of a three-part question about the IAAF failing to follow up athletes’ suspicious blood values, widespread corruption in Russia’s anti-doping system and the suggestion the IAAF was complicit in that.
Collins told the BBC: “The committee asked him (Coe) about his knowledge of doping in Russian athletics and of corruption within the sport. In his answers, he gave the impression that he was unaware of specific allegations. Thanks to evidence presented by the BBC Panorama programme, and by David Bedford to the committee, we can see that he was aware, at least in general terms.”
Coe concludes his letter by reiterating his belief that he has not misled the committee and says he trusts “this clarifies the matter to the satisfaction of the committee”.
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