Four senior athletics officials will face the start of disciplinary hearings on Wednesday on charges that they covered up doping offences.
The IAAF's ethics commission is holding a three-day hearing in London, although none of the four officials are expected to attend.
Those involved are: Papa Massata Diack, who worked as a consultant for world athletics' governing body and is the son of its former president Lamine Diack; former IAAF anti-doping director Gabriel Dolle; former Russian federation president and IAAF treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev; and the Russian federation's former chief coach for long-distance athletes, Alexei Melnikov.
All four are charged with various breaches of the IAAF's code of ethics and could face lifetime bans.
The ethics hearings take place against a background of investigations by French police into allegations that senior IAAF officials took bribes to cover up drugs tests.
Lamine Diack is under investigation, suspected of receiving more than one million euros, while his son Papa Massata Diack along with Dolle and Balakhnichev are also being investigated.
The IAAF charges involve Russian runner Liliya Shobukhova, the former London marathon winner who turned whistleblower for the World Anti-Doping Agency earlier this year, and money she paid to have her doping violations covered up.
According to testimony she has given, Shobukhova paid more than £435,000 for violations to be covered up so that she was not suspended.
The panel will be made up of ethics commission chairman Michael Beloff QC, Thomas H Murray, an American who is President Emeritus of renowned research institution the Hastings Centre, and Japan's Akira Kawamura, a former president of the International Bar Association.
A decision is expected in early January.
The IAAF has banned Russia from international competition after a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency's independent commission, headed by Dick Pound, who is due to release the second part of his findings on January 14.
Source:Sky.com
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