CAS decision in the appeal of UAE Athletics Federation President, Ahmad Al Kamali
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued its decision in the appeal filed by the President of the UAE Athletics Federation, Ahmad Al Kamali, against the decision rendered by the Panel of the World Athletics (WA; formerly IAAF) Ethics Board on 15 December 2020 (the Challenged Decision).
In such decision, Mr Al Kamali was found to have breached Articles C5(21) (behavior of candidates for elected positions) and D2(26) (gifts and other benefits) of the former IAAF Code of Ethics after he offered gifts to delegates at the Confederation of African Athletics (the “CAA”) Congress in Addis Ababa in March 2015 in an alleged attempt to persuade them to vote for him for the position of Council member and/or Vice-President of the IAAF Council during the 2015 Council elections. Mr Al Kamali was sanctioned with a 6-month ban from taking part in any athletics-related activity including holding any relevant office in athletics, and a fine in the sum of CHF 5,000.
Mr Al Kamali filed an appeal at the CAS on 4 January 2021 and the matter was referred to a Panel of CAS arbitrators who held a hearing with the parties by videoconference on 1 July 2021.
The CAS Panel found that while Mr Al Kamali had violated Article C5(21) of the Code of Ethics by offering gifts, such gifts were not “of more than nominal value”, i.e. were of small value, and accordingly, it could not confirm the violation of Article D2(26). As a consequence, it reduced the sanctions proportionally by setting aside the fine.
The original publication can be found here.
