IAAF agent 'asked Qatari royal' for $5m in bid for sporting events

Leaked emails appear to link a member of the Qatari royal family to a deal that is being investigated as part of a inquiry into alleged corruption surrounding bids for the 2017 athletics world championships and 2020 Olympic Games.

French investigators have spent three years scrutinising two payments of $3.5m made in October and November 2011, a month before a vote by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to decide the host of the 2017 world championships. French investigators suspect the payments may have been a bribe to win votes for Qatar for the event, which was eventually won by London.

Related: Lamine Diack to stand trial for money laundering and corruption

Emails seen by the Guardian and the French website Mediapart, which are not in the French police file, suggest that the disgraced IAAF marketing consultant Papa Massata Diack discussed a transfer of money in emails to an account run by Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al-Thani, just before the $3.5m payments were made. Al-Thani is a member of the royal family and chief of staff to Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who was then the crown prince and heir to the throne and became the emir of Qatar in 2013.

Massata Diack, who is wanted by Interpol on corruption charges, begins one email to “Sheikh Khalid” by telling him: “Thanks again for your hospitality and diligence during my stay in Doha,” before providing his IAAF letter of affirmation that “QSI or Oryx QSI” is asking.

“I do not owe it to them but to Your HH and yourself as you only know the role I play in this matter,” he adds. HH appears to refer to Tamim Al Thani, who was known as HH Heir Apparent when the letter was written in 2011.

The Guardian, which published part of this letter in 2014, has seen evidence that points to “Sheikh Khalid” being the chief of staff to the then crown prince, based on an analysis with Mediapart of dozens of other emails sent to the same Hotmail account, some of which use Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al-Thani’s full name in Arabic.

In the email Massata Diack says: “You will find attached the bank details for the transfer of $4.5 million which must be done as agreed.” In red ink he then adds: “The balance of 440,000 must remain in Doha in cash, I will pick it up the next time I come.”

Papa Massata Diack specifies that the payment must be made “urgently today so that I can finalize things with the president” and show him “the signed contract and the bank confirmation”.

The “president” in question appears to be his father Lamine, who was at the time the IAAF president. Papa Massata Diack and Lamine Diack were this week ordered to stand trial on charges of corruption and money laundering by French authorities. They are accused of being part of a conspiracy to bury positive drug tests by Russian athletes in return for money. They all deny the charges.

As for the contract, it is believed to be between Massata Diack’s company Pamodzi and Oryx QSI, the company headed by a brother of Nasser al-Khelaifi, the president of Paris Saint-Germain football club and BeIN Sports.

Seven days later, Oryx QSI made a $3m transfer to Pamodzi. A second one of $500,000 followed on 7 November 2011.

Neither Al-Thani or Al Thani responded to the request for comment from the Guardian and Mediapart. Lamine Diack’s lawyer also said he did not want to answer any questions before his case was heard.

Massata Diack also refused to respond directly when quizzed over the payment. However after confirming the weather was pleasant in Senegal he added: “It is better to see you and the French judges your ultimate bosses – in courts – to get to the bottom of it!!! The investigation is over and if you are sure of your proofs, just present them there.”

This latest development, coming after the former Uefa president Michel Platini was arrested as part of a police corruption probe into the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, will increase the scrutiny on how the country has tried to acquire major sporting events.

Al-Khelaifi and his right-hand man Yousef al-Obaidly, the chief executive of BeIN Sports, two of the most senior figures in sport, are facing “active corruption” charges related to the $3.5m payment. They have been declared “mise en examen”, which they are now suspects in the case rather than a witness.

Al-Khelaifi denies all allegations. Al-Obaidly also denies any suggestion of corruption. His representatives insist that the $3.5m wire transfers were a “non-refundable deposit” by a private company Oryx QSI to Pamodzi Sports Marketing, owned by the IAAF’s appointed agent, Massata Diack, and not to Massata Diack directly. They say this was part of a wider $32.6m bid for athletics TV rights that was dependent on Qatar winning the rights to hold the 2017 world championships.

Nasser Al-Khelaifi was also recently asked in court about his connection to the bids for the 2017 world athletics championships and the 2020 Olympics. “I did not deal at all with the negotiations for the World Championships in Athletics or for the Olympic Games,” he told the investigating judge, Renaud van Ruymbeke, in a transcript seen by the Guardian. “For these events, there is an organising committee in which I am not a stakeholder.”

However several documents sent from the Hotmail address used by Nasser Al-Khelaifi as part of a previously unreported five-man “brain trust” [sic] tasked with helping the then crown prince, “brain storm strategies and coordinate efforts” to win the 2017 championships and the 2020 Olympics.

Other emails suggest Al-Khelaifi’s willingness to use his role as boss of Al Jazeera Sports – which later changed its name to BeIN Sports – to help Qatar win the 2017 World Athletics Championships.

A confidential letter sent on 26 June 2011 to him by Saoud al-Thani – the general secretary of the Qatari Olympic Committee and chairman of the 2017 World Championships bidding committee – asks him to “support the event” by buying the TV rights for the 2017 world athletics championships, as well as the rights of the other IAAF competitions for 2014-2019.

A week later, Al-Khelaifi responds that he accepts all the requests, adding that Al Jazeera Sports “is very pleased to be part of the Team of the Doha 2017 IAAF World Championship Bid Committee and working closely toward the success of this event in Qatar”.

Al-Khelaifi did not respond to questions sent by the Guardian and Mediapart. His lawyer added: “Mr Al Khelaifi only answers to the judges. He has nothing to declare to you and regrets the violation [of the confidentiality] of the probe.”