Athletics world governing body, the IAAF, have provisionally suspended three senior members of the organisation on allegations that they attempted to delay the naming of doping Russian athletes.
Nick Davies, his wife Jane Boulter-Davies and medical manager Pierre-Yves Garnier are all alleged to have accepted money to conceal news of positive Russian drugs tests in 2013.
The trio will not be able to hold office for 180 days as a result of the suspension.
"There is no greater priority for the IAAF right now than to get to the truth of the allegations that have been made against the sport. These particular facts were made public in December 2015 and relate to allegations of a breach of the IAAF Code of Ethics," the IAAF said in a statement.
"The IAAF welcomes these investigations by the Ethics Board and investigator Sir Anthony Hooper and thanks them for the difficult and hard work they continue to undertake on behalf of the sport and the organisation.
"As the Ethics Board statement says, each of the persons provisionally suspended ‘enjoys the presumption of innocence until the outcome of the investigation and the determination of disciplinary charges, if any, brought against them’. It is therefore important that we let these investigations take their course without further comment."
The allegations arise from an email sent by Davies to Papa Massata Diack, son of then IAAF president Lamine Diack, before the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow which outlined a plan to delay naming Russian cheats to avoid bad publicity.
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