french-court-denies-bid-by-diack’s-son-and-co-defendant-to-delay-bribery-trial

French court denies bid by Diack’s son and co-defendant to delay bribery trial

Sports

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court on Monday said it would not delay the trial of Lamine Diack, the former head of athletics’ governing body, and his son who both face charges of corruption and money laundering linked to a Russian doping scandal.

Papa Massata Diack resides in Senegal, which refused to extradite him to France. Papa Massata’s French lawyer said his Senegalese counterparts were indispensable to his defence but had been unable to travel to Paris because of coronavirus border restrictions.

The prosecution said Papa Massata was a fugitive playing “cat and mouse” with the French court.

Reporting by Tangi Salaun; editing by Richard Lough