PARIS:  The trial of Lamine Diack, former president of the International Athletics Federation, has been postponed until June after the submission of new documentation on the scheduled opening day in Paris.

The documents had been sent by lawyers acting for Papa Massata Diack, son of Lamine who has resisted extradition from Senegal to avoid also standing trial on corruption charges. He had submitted sworn statements to a court in Dakar on November 4.

Bank documents concern the movements of funds made on the accounts of three companies behind which appears the name of Papa Massata Diack: Pamodzi Sports Consulting, PMD Consulting and Sporting Age.

Arnaud de Laguiche, one of the financial prosecutors in Paris, said: “We only received these documents physically this morning and had no time to study them.”

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Diack, 86, led the IAAF – now rebranded as World Athletics – from 1999 to 2015. He faces charges of corruption, breach of trust, money laundering and criminal conspiracy. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a heavy fine.

The court refused an appeal from Diack to be permitted to visit his brother in Senegal who is celebrating his 100th birthday.

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