Former IAAF president has attended court in Paris, where he faced corruption and money-laundering charges

French prosecutors have sought a four-year sentence for former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack during his trial in Paris.

Prosecutors also requested that the 87-year-old’s son and co-defendant Papa Massata Diack, a former IAAF marketing consultant, receive a five-year sentence and that both men are fined €500,000 each.

They both faced charges of corruption, money laundering and breach of trust — charges which they deny.

Their co-defendants – former IAAF anti-doping chief Gabriel Dolle and Diack’s former aide Habib Cisse, plus former Russian athletics chief and IAAF treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev and Russian coach Alexei Melnikov – all also deny their own charges.

While Lamine Diack was in Paris for the trial, Papa Massata Diack remained in their native Senegal, having refused to be extradited to France.

The trial was due to have taken place in January but was delayed due to new evidence.

The verdicts are expected in September.

COMMENT: The clean-up operation starts here

Lamine Diack was the head of athletics’ world governing body – now known as World Athletics – for 16 years, from 1999 until 2015, when he was succeeded by Seb Coe.

Earlier this year the BBC reported that World Athletics is seeking €41.2m (more than £35m) in compensation from the six defendants due to loss of sponsorship revenue and damage to reputation of the global governing body.

The charges are linked to the Russian doping scandal and last week the BBC reported that Lamine Diack told the court that the handling of Russian doping cases between 2011-2013 was delayed “for the financial health” of the IAAF.

“We were going through a difficult moment financially,” he is quoted as saying.

“My duty was to make sure the IAAF got out of it.”