PARIS: French prosecutors have issued papers seeking to bring to trial Lamine Diack, the Senegalese former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Diack, 85, is accused over allegations of corruption and money-laundering. Criminal charges have also been laid against five other people including his son and former IAAF marketing adviser Papa Massata Diack.

The National Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation was launched in November 2015 after a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency revealed an alleged corrupt deal in which Diack, in exchange for quashing anti-doping action by the IAAF, obtained Russian funds for his presidential campaigns in Senegal.

Also entangled were negotiations with Russian sponsors and broadcasters, ahead of the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow.

Also in November 2015, the financial magistrates indicted Lamine Diack, his then advisor Habib Cisse and former chief of anti-doping of the IAAF, Gabriel Dollé. The latter admitted the facts and sought a plea bargain.

Lamine Diack is also accused of “abuse of trust” for allowing, “because of his duties” Papa Diack Massata “to appropriate revenue from the IAAF sponsors” such as Russian state-owned bank VTB, South Korean Samsung, Chinese company Sinopec, Abu Dhabi Corporation or Chinese TV CCTV.