The Paris trial of Lamine Diack, the former head of athletics’ world governing body who is accused of accepting millions of dollars to cover up positive Russian doping tests, has been moved back five days to June 8, a judicial source told AFP .
Originally due to start in January, then scheduled for June 3, the hearing is set to last until June 18 in the French capital.
The 86-year-old IAAF chief between 1999-2015, is charged with “giving and receiving bribes”, “breach of trust” and “organised money laundering” and is facing a potential 10-year prison sentence for taking bribes to cover up tests showing Russian doping.
The prosecution alleges Diack obtained $1.5 million of Russian funds to help fund Macky Sall’s 2012 successful campaign for Senegal presidency election, in exchange for the IAAF’s anti-doping arm to cover up offenses by 23 Russians.
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Key to those accusations is Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, a former marketing consultant for the then-International Association of Athletics Federations (now World Athletics).
Diack Jr is accused of playing a “central role” in the network of corruption and is charged with “money laundering”, “giving bribes” and “aiding the receiving of bribes“.
But he has refused to cooperate with French authorities and remains in his native Senegal.
Diack’s former legal advisor, Habib Cisse, is suspected of having acted as an intermediary between the then-IAAF and Russian athletics and having received hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The case is being pursued by the French authorities because the alleged money-laundering happened in France, where Lamine Diack has been under house arrest since the investigation began.
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