Corruption retrial for son of former athletics global chief delayed

The appeals court in Paris on Wednesday postponed the corruption retrial of Papa Massata Diack, the son of the late disgraced former head of athletics Lamine Diack, until December.

Diack, whose father headed the IAAF — now called World Athletics — from 1999 to 2015, was one of six men convicted in France in 2020 for hushing up 23 Russian doping offences in exchange for Russian sponsorship contracts.

He was originally sentenced to five years in prison and fined one million euros ($1.1 million) but in 2024 France’s highest court said that the trial could be reheard at the Paris appeals court.

At that court on Wednesday, lawyers for Papa Massata Diack and Habib Cisse, another of the six men convicted in 2020, asked for more time to present their case.

The court postponed the trial until December 8.

The trial in 2020 heard the prosecution allege that Papa Massate Diack, known as PMD, and his father had overseen a corrupt network that set out to hide drug offences and delay or erase sanctions for doped Russian athletes.

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As a result of hiding the doping cases, Russian athletes were able to compete at the 2012 London Olympics and 2013 world championships in Moscow.

In return, Russian sponsors renewed their contracts with the IAAF.

PMD had a high-profile role as a marketing consultant for the IAAF.

He remains in his native Senegal which refuses to extradite the 60-year-old.

PMD was found guilty of being an accomplice in a bribery scheme and of having embezzled funds to the tune of 15 million euros at the expense of the IAAF.

World Athletics, headed since 2015 by British double Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe, was seeking 41.2 million euros in damages.

Published on Sep 03, 2025