Trial of former athletics chief Diack for doping cover-up to begin

PARIS, (Reuters) – Lamine Diack, the disgraced former head of athletics’ governing body, goes on trial in Paris today on charges of corruption and money laundering linked to a Russian doping scandal.

Diack, from Senegal, led the governing IAAF, now renamed World Athletics, from 1999-2015 and was among the most influential men in the sport.

The other defendants are Habib Cisse, Diack’s former lawyer at the IAAF; Gabriel Dolle, who oversaw doping tests at the IAAF; and Russians Valentin Balakhnitchev and Alexei Melnikov, who were Russia’s athletics’ federation chief and head athletics coach respectively at the time of the alleged cover-up.

Investigators at the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) describe a web of corruption in world athletics under Diack’s leadership.

Sebastian Coe, Diack’s successor, has undertaken to rebuild trust in athletics and has introduced changes to the sport’s governance.